


An Appointment or Two

by tbiris



Series: A Cut Above the Rest [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-01-10 04:26:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 51,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1155067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tbiris/pseuds/tbiris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren had just finished his exams when Mikasa calls him about a hair appointment she set up for him and that there will be dire consequences if he doesn't go. He braves the freezing weather, only to find that his usual stylist isn't there. Normal people wouldn't have an issue, but Eren has a small problem with people touching his head. When a frozen hell sparks the hottest flame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hell freezes over and Jean's an asshole

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Windwolf0097](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windwolf0097/gifts).



> Just a Trim from Eren's POV. Please let me know if you find any mistakes!

The first term was finally over. Eren stretched as he waited for the invigilators to come by and pick up his test. The loss of adrenaline was starting to hit him and he could feel the exhaustion starting to settle in as his paper was picked up. He stuffed his pen and pencil back into his pocket before sliding out of his seat and slipping on his jacket. He zipped up as he walked out into the brisk air, checking his phone for any messages.

 

He had two messages, one from Armin telling him to at least change and shower before he passed out for the next twelve hours and one from Mikasa with just a single word. Call. He locked his phone only for it to vibrate in his hand. He closed his eyes, he should have known that Mikasa would stalk the outside of the exam room. He didn’t bother picking up the phone and crossed the road to the library.

 

Sure enough, Mikasa was between the double doors with her headphones in as she stared at him.

“What do you want?” he asked tiredly.

“I wanted to let you know before you passed out for the rest of the day and most of tomorrow that you have a hair appointment tomorrow at eleven thirty with Jean.” She raised a hand, cutting off all this protests.

“Jean said that if you don’t show up he’ll just shave off your head when you reschedule. Doesn’t matter what your excuse is.” He snorted until he caught a glimpse of Mikasa’s eyes and suddenly he was wide awake again.

“If I come over and you aren’t at your appointment I’ll come into your room and take all your clothes and throw them outside and dump water on them so you have an ice cube to wear.” He stared at her in horror. She gave his hair a light tug, barely enough for him to feel before going back into the library. “Sleep well.”

 

It took the long walk back to his dorm before the adrenaline from Mikasa’s threat wore off. He quickly set his alarm before sitting down on his bed. Exhaustion overtook him quickly and he passed out in his clothes, not bothering to take off his glasses.

 

The next thing he knew he was by the ocean, waves of music washing over him. The voices took a little longer to sink in and he opened an eye, slowly closing and reopening his eyes. His phone was blaring that Lilo and Stitch song and he hit the screen blindly, rolling over until a familiar voice echoed ice cube in his head. He sat up quickly, grabbing his phone quickly to check the time.

 

He had a brief moment where he relaxed, he didn’t have to run to the salon. Second step was checking for messages, another one from Armin telling him that if he absolutely had to go outside for anything that he should bundle up because it was freezing. He read it as ‘actually wear your winter jacket and boots for once’ instead. The cold generally didn’t bother him too much and he could get by for the majority of the winter with just a light jacket.

 

If it was that cold out though, a shower this close to his appointment would probably be a bad idea, and he felt like grossing out Jean just a bit just for his threat. He rolled out and into the kitchen. It was one of the few times he was happy about having the room to himself, he could just go out and put a piece of bread into the toaster. He crinkled his nose, trying to figure out why his nose and and ears hurt.

 

Fuck, he took off his glasses and rubbed his nose. He really had to break that habit. While he was waiting for the toaster he went to the washroom. Glasses off, contacts in. The faint throbbing in his ears and nose would take a while to die down. He was brushing his teeth when the he heard the faint pop of the toaster and he caught sight of the time on the microwave.

 

Plain toast in hand, he was slipping on his boots without bothering to tie them and was out the door. His jacket was zipped up as he went down the stairs, toast in his mouth. He had mostly finished the plain toast by the time he opened the door.

 

Shit, Armin shouldn’t have said freezing, hell freezing over would have been more accurate. His eyes watered from the temperature change and he had never been so happy to have a higher body temperature than most people. It didn’t stop him from half-jogging to the salon though. Thankfully it wasn’t too far from the campus, and he found his ears actually felt cold by the time he pushed open the door. It was fairly empty, and he smiled slightly at the girl by the computer, Petra if he remembered properly.

 

“Eren Jaegar for Jean?” he asked. Petra gave him a nervous smile.

“Jean called in and said he can’t make any of his appointments today. Levi’s covering for him though if you want to take a seat.” His eyes widened, there were a few reasons that he actually let Jean touch his head. One being that they had been friends and enemies through high school and he believed in supporting his friends. The other was that his head was a bit… sensitive and Jean understood that and their banter helped him to stay in control of himself. He wasn’t sure if he really felt comfortable with someone else near his scalp.

 

“But I made the appointment with Jean.” Well, Mikasa did. She and the bastard had even threatened him to make it for the appointment and he didn’t show up. He’d give him a piece of his mind later, once he was back in residence in the warmth.

 

“No one but you was stupid enough to still come out.” The voice startled him and he looked over to find the source. Short would have described the man well, interesting was another word he might choose. He could almost feel his throat block, how much had he heard? He fidgeted, hoping that he hadn’t offended the stylist at all. How could he possibly fix this?

 

“I -uh” Brilliant Eren, brilliant why don’t you just dazzle him with your intellect. Not even  a full day without exams yet and his brain had already gone out of the window.

“Levi is one of our best,” Petra’s voice was like a balm, smoothing over the entire situation. The word reschedule caught his mind and he found himself starting to agree when Levi interrupted again.

 

“I can tell from here just how badly you need a wash and cut.” Well excuse him for being more concerned with his grades than general hygiene. As irritating as the man was proving to be, he was still uncomfortable with a total stranger touching his head. On the other hand, the fact that he was so irritating might mean that this would end alright. When he made the point of the entire trip, he had to admit that he had a point. He was more irritated than anything that Mikasa had made sure that he would wake up earlier than he wanted to to make this appointment as well and the jerk hadn’t bothered to even let him know that he wasn’t coming in.

 

He started to shrug off his winter jacket, hanging it up in the provided area and toed off his boots. The slippers were rather warm and enveloping. A glance at Levi had him gesturing at one of the hair washing stations. He felt a little guilty for not taking that fast shower he had considered. He didn’t mind making Jean wash his hair when he was being an ass, but this stranger hadn’t done anything wrong to him.

 

He realized that he was still standing by the station and sat down, stiff for when Levi would lift his hair into the washbasin. He was slightly relieved when he only noticed the very faint tug signalling him to lean back, the embarrassment came back and he felt his face go red when he asked about his hair washing schedule. He mumbled his answer about ‘exams’ and ‘time’ as he felt the slightly cold water trickling down his scalp. It was an odd warming and burning sensation, and he supposed it was due to the frigid conditions outside.

 

He lost his train of thought when he felt hands on his scalp, moving in an absolutely delicious pattern. He fought down that line of thinking, shit maybe he should have rescheduled after all. He could begin to feel a familiar tightness beginning and he hoped that Levi would stop soon so that he could take his mind off of how good those hands felt on his scalp.

 

He could barely hear some comment about washing his hair and mentioned something about the campus. His eyes had closed, he didn’t want Levi to see what the massage was doing to him. He was happy, and slightly disappointed when the hands left his scalp. The water still felt slightly warm to his skin.

“When was the last time you were even in here?” The question suddenly grabbed his attention and he opened his eyes, brows slightly furrowed. He wasn’t quite sure about when his last appointment had been. He could remember what had happened though, he had ended up ranting at Jean about book costs. He could feel the color return to his face and muttered the answer, feeling extremely embarrassed.

“Not since just before the beginning of the term.”

 

He was startled by the return of Levi’s hands to his scalp, the tight feeling pooling in his nethers was becoming uncomfortable enough that he shifted slightly. If only he could remove his mind from the thought of what other delightful feelings those fingers could evoke. The older man grumbled, but didn’t make any threats like Jean would have. He smiled slightly.

“At least you’re nicer about it than horse-face.” Oh shit he didn’t just slip out his nickname for Jean did he? He relaxed so very slightly when Levi only raised an eyebrow at the comment and offered back a half hearted shrug while explaining how Jean typically treated him to get him to make appointments.

 

He felt a smile slip out and his body released tension that he didn’t realize was there when Levi swore. It would explain why Levi had seemed tense himself, or… off was the best way that he could think of it.

 

He almost embarrassed himself again when he failed to notice Levi drying his hair until he felt the extra cotton on his skin. By that time Levi was at his station and turning the chair towards him. He walked quickly, hoping that his current issue wasn’t extremely obvious. He hesitated for a bare moment before he sat down. He was slightly amused that Levi didn’t really have to boost the chair up.

 

He almost laughed when Levi suggested shaving him and another voice laughed from behind the stylist area. He was tempted to play a little with the man, now that they were both a little more relaxed. He had to take his mind off of his current problem as well.

“What if I told you Jean only ever gave me a trim?” he asked. It wasn’t true, and Jean usually cut his hair way too short which ended with him only making hair appointments when Mikasa or Armin practically shoved him into the place.

 

He felt guilty when the health of his hair was mentioned, okay he didn’t take as much care of it as he should. Hair products were expensive though, and he’d rather buy quality food instead. He tried to smile at Levi’s reflection in the mirror. He didn’t honestly think about styles and he had no idea how unhealthy his hair was.

“Jean normally cuts it too short,” he whispered. He was happy when the cape was over him, he didn’t have to worry as much as his little problem now. It would be much harder to see under the loose cover. Levi’s talking also helped distract him from it.

 

He couldn’t help the flush that covered his cheeks at the allegations and he couldn’t help but appreciate Levi’s own assets when he was taking tools out of the drawer. At least Levi was better at brushing than Jean was as well. Then again, he purposefully pissed off Jean half the time. He did wish that he had brushed his hair a bit before leaving though. There was more than one snag where it really hurt, no matter how gentle Levi was being. The soft tugs on his scalp weren’t helping. He really had to distract himself somehow.

 

“It’s not like I don’t want to come in more often,” he huffed. His hands clutched at his jeans. “I  usually just get apprentice cuts and even then with books, food and all my school work there isn’t time or money for me to really come in that often.” He glanced up and shut his mouth at Levi’s glare. Holy shit, he thought Mikasa was the only one that could muster up a look that would pierce and freeze people in place.

 

“It doesn’t take that much effort for a trim, and if you actually kept on top of it instead of letting it get this bad it wouldn’t be as horribly short for you either.” Well if that wasn’t shaming, he didn’t know what was. He was slightly confused though when Levi started to twirl and pin parts of his hair up. The stylist seemed to understand his confusion and explained as he continued to work.

“For longer hair it’s easier for me to work in sections. That way I have a general idea of what I have to work with and I don’t accidentally cut too much in a different section. Your hair’s damaged enough that I’m just going to shear off the bottom with the scissors before touching up and actually making your head look somewhat respectable. The razor’s better for that precision work in short hair. It’s going to be short because your hair’s that damaged, some beyond repair. Just be happy I’m not leaving more because then you’d have to pick up some of that crazy expensive hair repair shit.” He noticed a smirk on Levi’s face as he worked and smiled slightly. It was nice to see the older man finally relaxing a bit.

 

“I’m pretty sure as a piss-poor student you don’t want to have to buy that crap.” Eren caught a faint yell of ‘Watch your mouth!’ from the same area as before. It was Levi’s actions to the voice that had him clutching his stomach because he was laughing so hard. The banter between those two seemed friendly and Eren couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

“It isn’t normally like this is it?” He knew it wasn’t when he came in. The intimacy of the setting seemed to put him more at ease though. His heart dropped slightly when Levi shook his head. He could feel the color drain from his face though when Levi explained that he had had to come in despite the cold.

 

The mirror wasn’t good enough, he had to see his face. He tilted his head back, fully intending to apologize and just had his head shoved back into place. It shouldn’t have excited him, but for some reason it had and he could feel that red creeping back in. He was getting Jean back for this later. He didn’t feel like the words sorry would even cover how he felt.

“I didn’t cancel because Jean and Mikasa threatened me if I didn’t make this appointment,” he muttered. Not that he would have been awake early enough to cancel either though, not early enough so that Levi wouldn’t have had to come into work.

 

There was silence for a while except for the clipping of the scissors and the quiet hum behind him. He really had a nice voice, and Eren found that he half wished that he was actually singing along to the song. The silence was broken by Levi first and he felt his heart sink a little when he said his hair would still be pretty short. The devious smile worried him a little, but he understood what he was after when he heard the scream from the back. Free made it more tempting, but he also didn’t want to cause any more trouble for anyone and voiced his concern.

 

The threat to getting Jean to fix up his hair won over, he wouldn’t deal with hair that short if he had a choice. He just watched Levi working in the mirror for a while. His head would be gently tilted in one direction or the other as he worked. Petra came by quietly once and swept away most of the hair. Finally Levi moved his head so he was finally upright he wondered if Levi knew exactly what he was doing. He caught a faint chuckle behind him and he turned red, was he really such an open book?

“Am I that easy to read?” he mumbled, looking down in embarrassment. His head was tilted back up so that he could see Levi’s eyes in the mirror again.

“Only when I’m expecting it. I don’t know you at all and it’s not like I can fucking read your mind.” Eren felt a little stupid now, but smiled at the explanation. The explanation made sense to him and he gave the smallest nod he could so that he wouldn’t disturb the work much.

 

Watching Levi turned out to be more of a mistake than anything. He became more aware of the tightness that had started with the head massage and had decreased in intensity, but never left. He had to think of something else, but he was also enjoying their silence.

“Why were you the only one called in?” Jean lived close enough by car anyways. He caught a slight shrug and winced when Levi mentioned that he walked to work. It would explain why Jean hadn’t come in though. There was no way that he would risk the ticket.

“It’s a shitty walk,” he muttered. He would have to make sure to tip well. It was going to hurt his wallet more, but to be called in when you had a day off sucked. He didn’t even realize that he had been looking down until Levi tapped his shoulder and told him to keep his head up.

 

The brush of fingers sent a thrill again and he screamed mentally as most of his self-distraction was undone. Levi repeated his question in regards to hairstyle. Eren wished he had actually looked up hairstyles because it seemed like he had some choice. He rolled his eyes and gave a small smile.

“Just not shaved please.” The snort made him worry for a moment and his stomach dropped when Levi suggested cutting his hair super short. He felt annoyance and relief when Levi said he was joking. He smiled in relief that he would be able to keep some sense of length in his hair. He watched Levi working, trying to separate his mind from what his body was urging him to do. With Jean the entire appointment was just filled with arguments and disagreements, but with Levi it was mostly filled with a comfortable silence.

 

When Levi came around the front to trim his bangs he couldn’t help but glance up through his hair. He could almost swear he saw a small smile on the man’s face when he did, even if he did tilt his head back down slightly. He didn’t expect the ruffle of his hair, which sent pleasurable spikes back to his nethers. He was glad that he kept the blush off of his face though.

 

He enjoyed the warmth of the hair dryer. He normally let his hair just air dry so he took the time to enjoy the warm breeze and use the time to not look at Levi. The brush at the back of his neck was expected though so he could damp down his reaction. The warmth on his neck from the hairdryer somehow sent chills down his spine and he glanced in the mirror, noticing Levi had stood so that he could clearly see what he was doing with the comb when styling. He took note of the pathways and wished that he had thought of styling his hair like that before.

 

He had a brief moment of panic as Levi unbuttoned the cover and took it off. With some relief his hard on wasn’t that noticeable, he would just have to not bring attention to it for the next little while until he returned to the freezing world outside. He was slightly disappointed when Levi told him to go and see Petra, despite his current issue, it had been enjoyable as well. He reached out for Levi’s hand for a moment, before stopping himself. He had some reason to keep him here for a bit longer right?

 

“Tip?” he asked. He felt bad for Levi having to come out, it would be worth the hit to his wallet though. He could feel the corners of his mouth turn up in a less than innocent manner when Levi suggested an alternate method of tipping. He felt like the two of them would get along just fine. Jean would be more inclined to make it up to him if he said he was passing along the message for Levi as well. He gave a small wave and promised to pass along the message before turning back to Petra’s desk. He dug in his back pocket for his wallet and leaned against the desk.

 

She smiled up at him and typed in some numbers on her keyboard.

“So Eren we are still going to charge you the student rate since it was Jean’s fault for not showing up.” There was a small twinkle in her eyes.

“While you’re here do you want me to make your next appointment for Levi, and I’ll put in a note that it’s free of charge.” Eren hesitated and Petra leaned in, her eyes glinting deviously.

“I’ve never seen him so relaxed around someone, so don’t worry about it.” He gave a faint smile and fidgeted slightly.

“What would a normal time for maintenance be?” he asked. Petra glanced at his hair and pursed her lips thoughtfully.

“A month or two maybe?” she replied. He nodded slightly.

“Does he work on Saturdays?”

“Making sure you don’t miss class hm?” she smiled as she typed more letters. She gave a small nod and filled out a piece of paper and handed it to him.

“You’ll have an appointment February fourteenth then at three pm. His last appointment of the day.” Eren had a feeling she was angling for something more and he looked at her skeptically.

 

Petra just smiled slightly.

“He always needs some cheering up around that time anyways. Stick in the ass and all.” He smiled shyly and took the paper, holding out his debit card for her. She punched in some numbers and handed it back to him. It seemed like some good things did come from hell freezing over.

 

The transaction went quickly and he handed the machine back to her before changing back into his winter gear. He wasn’t looking forward to returning to the cold outdoors, but the good thing would be that it would completely kill his boner. He took a deep breath before opening the door and breaking into a run.

 

The very last thing he expected to see in his room was Mikasa and Jean. Why was Jean even here if he couldn’t make it into work! He glared at him and had opened his mouth, ready to give him a piece of his mind until Mikasa threw her arms around him.

 

“I was so worried Eren! I called in the morning hoping you hadn’t left already! Jean had called me to say that they were ticketing people driving so you didn’t have to come in but you weren’t answering your messages!” Calls? He hadn’t received any calls. He checked his pockets and realized exactly why he didn’t get any of Mikasa’s calls.

“I forgot my phone here,” he mumbled. She drew back and snorted.

“I figured that out eventually jackass. Armin had to let us in so that we could make sure you’re alright.” She pressed a hand to his cheek. “At least you listened to Armin in some regard and actually wore your jacket. You’re still cold though, I’ll start the kettle.”

 

“Well since you’re here and well then I’ll be off. Glad to see your hair isn’t a fucking mess for once though.” Jean stood up from the couch. Eren smirked slightly and kicked up an eyebrow.

“About that Jean. Levi said that for the inconvenience you put us through you owe us drinks.” He didn’t think Jean’s face could possibly go so pale unless he had a severe case of frostbite.

“Levi was called in?” he whispered, sinking back down to the couch.

 

“Well he does good work.” He wasn’t expecting Mikasa to run her fingers through his hair and he pulled back, smacking into the door.

“Fuck Mikasa! Don’t do that!” She turned slightly red and held her hand close.

“I’m sorry Eren I forgot and it looked so soft.” Jean;s chuckle sounded a little weak.

“Yeah the guy probably used the good stuff.” Jean ran a hand through his own hair. “He can be a terror off shift but can flip a switch when he’s actually working.”

 

Eren frowned, sitting at the table to face Jean while he waited for the kettle to boil. Mikasa’s slight tug at his jacket remind him to take it off, but he didn’t bother to hang it up and just let it drape over the chair.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s really quiet, polite and smiles when he’s working. He’s a stubborn, sullen old man otherwise.” Jean let out a breath. “But he’s really good. Really really good.” Eren felt his heart sink, although he wasn’t sure why.

 

The kettle began to whistle and Mikasa shot Eren such a glare that he stayed sitting down while she made the tea.

“Well then it’s a good thing that Eren got the polite side or it might have become a fight. Isn’t it?” Her tone suggested that they drop it and Eren found another question arising now that he was looking at Jean.

 

“If you called in why did you come by?” Jean looked at him like he was crazy.

“With how your sister was yelling at me? I think she wanted me on hand just so she could strangle me if you froze to death.”

“So if Mikasa says jump you say how high?” Eren was taking too much enjoyment from this scenario. Jean couldn’t react the way he would normally want to, not with Mikasa holding boiling water in her hands right now.

 

A mug was placed in front of him and a travel mug was given to Jean. Eren didn’t recognize it as one of his so it must have been Jean’s from earlier.

“Be careful in the cold horseface,” he warned, crossing his legs to hide his issue from Jean. Fuck his head for being so sensitive.

“Fuck you Jaegar.”  
“Nah I don’t think so, you’re not my type,” he shot back, falling naturally into their normal rhythm. This time though, Jean wasn’t playing fair.

“True you like them wild and short don’t you?” Eren almost spit out his tea, Levi having been the first person to come to mind. The man could give a gorgeous head massage.

“Holy fuck, don’t tell me you actually have a crush on Armin.”

“What! No!” Eren was looking around frantically, but it was Mikasa that laid a calming hand on his arm and sopped up most of the tea with a paper towel.

 

“We won’t judge you Eren, regardless of who you like,” she murmured. “Just know that if they hurt you I’ll hurt them right back.” Eren felt a chill going down his spine. Somehow he felt that meeting his sister would probably be worse than meeting his parents for any future boyfriend.

“Who the fuck popped into your sick brain then?” Jean asked, looking at Eren critically. Eren sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It felt weird now that it was so short. He really didn’t want to answer the question, but Jean would be going through enough shit soon enough that he felt this at least deserved an answer.

“Levi. No, don’t look like that.” His face turned almost beet red. “He-he gives a mean head massage.” He buried himself in his tea and missed the wide grin on Jean’s face.

 

“So that’s why you were that sensitive to Mikasa’s touch then.” Eren raised his head slightly and his hand was trembling slightly as he took a sip of tea. Jean stood up, cradling his travel mug.

“Well Mikasa I think we should head out and leave Eren here alone.” Mikasa looked like she was going to protest but Jean actually steered her to the door and was whispering something into her ear.

“We’re going to say hi to Armin, our coats are there anyways. Have fun.” Jean gave him a lewd wink as he closed the door behind them.

 

Eren groaned and leaned over his tea. Of course Jean would have picked up on that, he could only hope that they didn’t do anything drastic with that information. Now that his friends weren’t around though, he found his mind was drifting back to that massage and now that he wasn’t observed it was a lot harder to ignore the familiar tightening feeling.

 

A simple head massage shouldn’t have gotten him so hard, hell the memory of it shouldn’t have made him react so much either. He found his hand drifting lower now though, nothing was actually stopping him from solving this issue the easy way now.

 

It would be all too easy to just take off his jeans, slip a hand into his boxers and-no. No, he wasn’t going to mastrubate to the memory of a practical stranger that was also Jean’s coworker. Someone he knew almost nothing about.

 

A knock on his door jolted his thoughts out of his hair experience. He grimaced at the state he was in though, he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to answer the door right now.

“Eren?” Armin’s voice sounded through the door. “I just thought that I should remind you that you need to pack up everything tonight and we’re expected for dinner at seven.” Eren cursed and finished his tea quickly. He had forgotten about the rules for moving out of dorms and he was a little surprised that Mikasa hadn’t bothered to remind him either.

“Shit,” he cursed and tripped over the chair. “Thanks Armin!”

 

They were spending the holidays with Armin and his family while their father was overseas for the year. He half hopped to his room to pack some clothes for the next two weeks. The pain in his leg from the chair leg distracted him amply from where his thoughts had been going. Even though it was barely one, he still had to do laundry and actually clean up his room.

 

He didn’t mind his room being messy during the school year, but it was nice to come back to an actual clean room before he tore it to pieces during the term. The first  step was just sorting all the clothes that were on his floor and notes that had been scattered everywhere.By the time he had sorted all the garbage out he felt like he could actually go out in public without embarrassing himself.

 

The laundry would take at least an hour if he actually put it in the dryer. He set his phone to go off in the half hour it would take to actually wash the clothes so that he wouldn’t forget. Next step was tossing out all of his garbage. He made a face, as much as he told himself that he was going to be cooking more this term, finals week had turned into fast food week. There was less clutter than he thought there would be, he would be willing to bet that Mikasa had gotten rid of the worst of the leftover food.

 

Now that the easy part was over, it was time to actually organize his room. By the time his alarm went off, it seemed like the mess had increased rather than decrease. He was slightly glad for the break, this was the part of cleaning he always hated. Where there was progress, but it wasn’t visible.

 

By six thirty, his room was clean. It wasn’t quite as clean as he would like it, but it would do for the break. Most importantly, he was packed and had managed to wrap Mikasa, Armin and Jean’s present. Everyone else was staying in their cities over the break so it would just be the small group of them this year. He took five seconds to relax, knowing that almost right at six thirty, Armin would be hammering on his door again.

 

Sure enough, he could hear the more urgent knock and gave a small laugh while he grabbed his bag as he answered the door. Armin’s hair was tied back, glasses perched on his nose. He raised an eyebrow at Eren’s appearance before stepping back. Eren closed the door behind him, doing a quick mental check. Phone, yes. Keys, locking the door right now. Chargers and laptop, packed away. His glasses were in his pocket. The nice thing about disposable contacts was he didn’t have to cart around the carrying case or cleaner fluids for them.

 

“Did you fall asleep with your glasses on again?” Armin asked. Eren smiled sheepishly and hoisted his bag a little further on his shoulder.

“How did you guess?” He glanced at Armin a little more critically. “How come Mikasa bugs the hell out of me for my hair and doesn’t say a word about yours?” Armin’s hair had grown long enough that his bangs were tucked behind his ears and most of it was tied back into a small ponytail. Armin gave him a sly smile.

 

“Jean trims my hair every other week.” Eren lifted an eyebrow, he hadn’t realized that the two of them had been seeing each other that often.

“Is he still daft?” Armin laughed and nodded. There was a pool going, no manipulations permitted, of when Jean would realize Armin would make up excuses to see him so often. Armin had eventually caught onto the bet and put in his own of ‘only when I tell him.’ His own bet was on when Jean noticed other people flirting with Armin, if the guy even knew how to flirt. Mikasa’s bet was on when someone in their group actually got into their own relationship and gave Jean some desire to be in one of his own.

 

No one had won yet and Jean was still oblivious as hell, which amused them all more than anything.

“How’re you doing with that?” He knew there were days Armin actually liked living in the same residence as him. It meant that he could actually drink with someone that understood his problem and wouldn’t be able to offer friendly advice other than ‘I think you’re done for the night.’ There had been more than a few nights where Armin had problems coping with how he felt, and the uncertainty of Jean’s own feelings.

 

Armin looked torn about what to say.

“Hey don’t worry talking about it, your face says enough.” He wasn’t in the horrible place, but he wasn’t in his happy state about it either.

“Did Jean tell you what the fuck he did to me today?” Armin smiled slightly.

“He seemed rather panicked about something and guilty.”

“Well he was supposed to be at work today and he didn’t show up because of the cold. No one told me before I was out the door and I left my phone behind. So there was someone else there to cover because I hadn’t cancelled the appointment.” His voice trailed slightly and a dusting of pink colored his cheeks. “So there was someone else there and he talked me into staying for the haircut.” Armin’s eyes widened slightly. “He gave me a head massage when he was washing my hair.”

“Oh Eren.” He could tell that Armin was trying not to laugh as they winced at the blast of cold air. At least the car would be warm.

“It didn’t help that today was moveout day either then did it?”

“No,” he muttered. At least Armin didn’t actually laugh.

 

Mikasa was already in the back seat of the car, her scarf pulled up high. Eren grabbed Armin’s bag while Armin opened the door to the car. Both bags went into the trunk and he sat in the car quickly.

“Hello Mr. Arlert, Ms. Arlert,” he muttered. He could feel their smiles as he looked out the window after buckling up.

“Well at least you won’t have to see him again,” Armin offered. That was the issue, he thought. He had seen and enjoyed Levi’s presence. However that Levi existed in an environment he wouldn’t ever see again. He wouldn’t be able to meet that person he had met today ever again.

 


	2. Insert Food into Mouth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winter break and Eren's starting to get tired of all the questions about Levi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow there's lots of chatting in this chapter. Levi's POV will be a bit more delayed since midterms are starting to come up. Let me know if you find any mistakes or inconsistencies. I'm sorry the winter break sounds really broken up. I didn't want to write it initially and it kinda... ran away with me.

Christmas had begun with the same fervor as when they were children. Which meant that they all had a pillow fight as soon as dawn broke and Mr. Arlert had yelled from his room to quiet down until breakfast. The pillow fight had continued, albeit much quieter and ended with Mikasa sitting on the two of them.

 

They had all helped to make breakfast and dinner. For lunch they had gone out with Jean and stayed at his house for a while playing games. They had all opened the presents to each other, Eren had to do a last minute run to grab a random gift card and the two had laughed when they ended up exchanging gift cards for the same store and denomination.

 

However, the two days that really stuck in Eren’s mind were New Year’s Eve and Day. New Year’s Eve had been it’s own awkward time at Jean’s apartment. Once they had all had enough drinks, Jean had taken to teasing Eren about Levi, only serving to make him more irritable and Eren had been able to feel Armin’s resentment from across the room. He didn’t need any encouragement to shove Jean over and just wave at Armin’s apologetic look.

 

He and Mikasa had laughed quietly when those two had fallen asleep in each other’s arms. How Jean wasn’t aware of how he felt was beyond them. The rules of the bet was no interference though, so the two of them left Armin and Jean there for the night while they watched The Lion King. There were the moments of tears for both of them and the obligatory singing at the tops of their lungs to I Just Can’t Wait to be King.

 

He was actually surprised he managed to remember that much before they had passed out and been woken up by ice cubes down their back with water glasses in their faces. Armin had made some comment about him falling asleep in his glasses again and he had gladly accepted the water before making breakfast. By make breakfast, it meant put everything in the oven. He had prepared a breakfast casserole ahead of time, since no one would want to cook hungover anyways.

 

It took until about dinner time until they had sobered up enough that Jean felt safe driving. They dropped by their respective houses to pick up skates before going to the local ice rink. Mikasa and Eren had spent their time trying to teach Jean and Armin how to skate again. Eren played ice hockey, and Mikasa had taken to figure skating since a young age. They had tried to teach Armin a few times and he had just started to get better.

 

Jean on the other hand was half dragging Mikasa down every other step. Armin tripped and caught himself about every three steps now.

“You almost have it now Armin!” he coached. “Try lengthening your strides a bit, less like walking.” He held onto Armin’s hands as he skated backwards, keeping an eye out for people behind him. “Left, right, left. That’s it. I’m going to let you go for a few moments.” Armin’s hands clenched his for a moment before releasing. Armin managed to stay on his feet and keep his balance, making Eren grin happily just before Armin’s face turned into one of shock.

 

That was all the warning he had before he went backside first into the snowbank. Armin wheeled his arms and skated into him. He rolled him off and the two of them fell into fits of laughter.

“Next lesson: how to watch where you’re going.” Armin howled louder. Mikasa and Jean eventually caught up with them while they were laughing. She spun him easily so that he was also sitting in the snowbank, before sitting down herself.

 

She offered a smile at Armin and Jean.

“You’ve both really improved.”

“Like hell,” Jean grumbled. “I don’t know if I can even stand on these things yet.” Mikasa ducked her head to hide a smile and Armin actually laughed.

“You need to stop leaning back,” Armin offered. “It took Eren skating backwards and telling me to relax as he pulled me along before I managed to get the posture right.”

“Even then he almost face planted once or twice,” Eren teased. Armin retorted with an elbow to his ribs.

 

“Whatever, can we get up now, my ass is freezing,” Jean grumbled. Eren half expected Mikasa to help him back up, but Armin got there first. Jean was almost swung onto the ice by Armin, with Mikasa and Eren both watching semi-shocked.

 

It took them about five seconds to get back up and another five to catch up just in time to catch the two before they hit the ice face first.

“Maybe we should have grabbed Eren’s helmet after all.” Mikasa’s voice was deadpan, but there was a sliver of amusement in her eyes.

 

“Shut up, I can do this,” Jean grumbled. Eren grunted slightly as he levered Jean back up so he was standing.

“Bend like I just punched you in the stomach,” he suggested. Jean looked offended the thought, but bent slightly as Eren’s hand closed into a fist. He wouldn’t actually hit him here when Jean’s actions might hurt some of the children nearby, but Jean didn’t need to know that. He gave a slight look to Armin, who shrugged and tried to skate around the rink, Mikasa staying near him.

 

“Stay like that for now.” Eren started to skate backwards and pick up speed. “I’m going to let go for a moment and you just have to keep your balance and not fall forward.” He smirked at him.

“Feel free to fall on your ass though.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jean grumbled. Eren let go and Jean managed to keep his posture for a few moments before his arms started to wheel around and Armin caught him before Eren could get there.

 

“Why don’t we just grab hot dogs and hot chocolate already and watch other people besides me fall on their ass.” They all smiled. Mikasa grabbed one of Jean’s arm’s, with Armin on the other.

“Go ahead and skate a few rounds Eren, we’ll grab a table and food. Jean still owes you a drink anyways.” Jean looked stricken as she dragged him away, Eren assumed it was the memory of owing Levi a drink as well. The rink wasn’t too busy so he was able to pick up some speed around the rink. They had started to light up the rink now that the darkness had settled in, with colors fading in through the ice.

 

A quick glance to the side showed Mikasa by the door and he took that as his signal to actually get off the ice. He glanced down and saw that she had also changed out of her skates.

“Don’t worry about it, just eat while it’s hot,” she muttered. “You can change later. Armin’s still in his skates too.” There was a comfortable silence while they went to the small rest area indoors.

“Jean still owes you that drink,” Armin called. Jean didn’t look too happy about that.

“I’ll get you some of that expensive crap at the Starbucks by work,” he grumbled.

 

Eren grinned as he slid onto the bench.

“Don’t forget you owe that Levi-guy too. What type of person is he anyways?” he asked. Jean raised an eyebrow and even Mikasa and Armin seemed to suddenly take interest. He took a bite out of his hot dog while Jean attempted to stare him down.

“Why are you interested in the guy?” he asked suspiciously. Eren gave a half shrug as he swallowed.

“He said he didn’t normally act like that so I’m wondering about what he’s normally like at work before I let him near my head again.” Armin snorted into his drink, Jean looked at him baffled and glanced towards Mikasa.

 

“You have another appointment with him?” The sounds seemed to have been dragged out of Jean’s throat. Eren gave a brief nod, looking rather confused. Jean leaned back for a moment, seeming to have forgotten that there wasn’t a back to the bench and windmilling his arms for a bit before Armin pulled him back towards the table.

“He’s usually pretty quiet and strict.”

“That last bit didn’t change,” Eren muttered. “He’s as bad as all of you with threats.” Mikasa smiled into her hot chocolate. Jean shrugged as he took a gulp of the hot chocolate. Armin was barely fast enough to avoid the splurt as Jean realized just how hot the hot chocolate was.

 

“Graceful,” Eren commented, grinning as he took another bite while Jean coughed.

“Fuck you. He doesn’t talk too much and I’m still just an apprentice so I’m mostly below his attention. I’ve heard that if anyone gives him a hassle though he won’t take any further appointments from them.” Jean finished. Eren glanced up, suddenly feeling like Jean was eying him like a piece of meat. Armin’s slight scowl was visible from the corner of his eye.

“He does a really good job though,” Jean sighed. “Wish I was that good. You actually look kinda hot with that hairstyle and the most I managed to do with you was make you look like a decent human being.”

 

He could feel Mikasa tensing across the table from him. His mouth went dry, for once he thought he might actually know what was going through Armin’s head. If he didn’t fix this somehow he wasn’t going to survive the night, even if Mikasa tried to protect him. He raised an eyebrow and leaned back from Jean, his mind racing.

“Sorry Jean, but beastiality isn’t my thing.”

“What the fuck? Are you still on about that! I can fucking say that someone’s cute or hot and not mean anything about it!” Eren gave a slight shrug but relaxed at Armin and Mikasa’s slow release of tension.

“Sorry but you do still look like a horse.” Jean almost leapt across the table, but was yanked backwards by Mikasa.

 

“Be nice,” Armin chided the two. “Finish your hot chocolate.” The quartet were quiet as they finished their light dinner and warm beverages. After Eren changed out of his skates and they were preparing to go home, Jean grabbed Eren’s arm.

“Just going to chat about Levi some more,” he assured the other two before he fixed Eren with a look.

 

“Seriously, what’s going on with you two?” Eren took advantage of Jean’s distraction to yank his arm back.

“Nothing!”

“Fuck that, if you have another appointment something happened.”

“Nothing happened! Petra just said that it would be on the house and made the appointment!”

“You trust him then?” Eren felt red dusting his cheeks and he looked back towards the rink.

“You know I can ask him to supervise me and help,” Jean added. “Just, I know you get touchy.” That was a unique way of describing Eren’s

problem with letting people near his head.

“Just say it,” he grumbled.

“Fine. I know that people touching your head turns you on and it bothers the fuck out of you. I annoy you enough so that you can’t actually get a fucking hard on and can enjoy a simple haircut. Now what the fuck happened during the appointment so you’re going back.”

“He gave me a head massage when he was washing my hair and I couldn’t think straight for the entire appointment! So nothing happened!” Jean looked at him critically for a few moments, like he was looking for something specific that Eren wasn’t telling him.

“So you’re saying you don’t feel anything for him?”

“How the fuck would I know? It was freezing out, he managed to get me somewhat relaxed but I don’t know him Jean! I probably never will!” Jean seemed to back off a little after that.

“Right. Come by the salon after your last class on the first day back then. I’ll get you your coffee then.” He gave a half wave and began walking in the opposite direction to the trio.

 

Eren stared at Jean’s back in confusion. Jean seemed to be asking him multiple questions all at once and he felt like he had only skimmed the surface of them.

“Eren!” Mikasa’s voice caught at him and he looked over for a moment before running to catch up to the two of them.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Armin looked concerned as well and he shrugged.

“I feel like Armin took over Jean for a bit and I heard the questions but I didn’t understand them.” He could almost feel Armin laughing at him inside his little devilish mind and Mikasa’s small smile when she knew he was being ridiculous.

“Whatever I’ll be fine,” he grumbled. “Lets just go home.”

* * *

 

As if to make up for the freezing cold temperature of December, the beginning of January decided to be oddly warm. Most students were enjoying the warmth and there were even a few brave souls out in shorts. Of course one of those was Eren.

 

He decided to wear shorts mostly to mess with Jean as payback for the confusion he had instilled in him over the winter holidays. The unfortunate side effect was everyone else on campus also staring at him and Armin outright breaking down in laughter in their one shared elective.

 

It was worth it for the look on Jean’s face, even if he had to hear Petra dissolve into giggles as well. It had most of the salon glancing at him, but only a few daring to linger. He met Levi’s eyes for a moment before his attention went back to his customer.

“Eren!” he detected a note of annoyance in Jean’s voice. Mission accomplished. He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. He was amused to see Jean bite back the more vulgar words he wanted to use and just ushered Eren out the door.

“I’ll be back in fifteen Petra!”

 

Petra’s laughter followed them out the door and he could have almost sworn he heard Levi’s condescending voice sound like it was scolding.

“Goddammit,” Jean cursed as he left the salon, ushering Eren out the door first. “Don’t you get fucking cold?” Eren shrugged and started across the street to the Starbucks.

“At least you had the decency to text before coming over.” Eren snorted. He wasn’t going to risk losing out on his free coffee just because Jean was with a customer. It was also a shitty thing to do to someone.

“Are you actually saying I’m a decent person?” he joked. Jean just punched him in the shoulder as he opened the Starbucks door.

 

“I’m saying you aren’t a horrible person Jaegar.” Jean got out his wallet preemptively. “Are you getting your usual?” Eren nodded, reading over the menu habitually.

“I still can’t believe you actually let him touch your head.”  
“He was just as crass as you are but in a more eloquent way,” Eren replied, slightly distracted. “I thought that I would be fine.”

“Yeah well, that didn’t go well did it?” Eren grumbled slightly, Jean was always good at finding his weak points and pushing them. He didn’t have quite the same finesse, but half of that might be because he honestly felt bad joking about Jean’s lack of relationship and Jean had none of that inhibition with him.

 

“You already know how it ended, stop it already.”

“Right, you with a boner from your overly sensitive head.” He could barely feel the brush of Jean’s fingers as he swept his hair over.

“Oh? I didn’t realize that was a problem you had. You hide it well Jaegar.” Eren felt his heart freeze for a brief moment before it hammered against his chest. Jean had also frozen for a moment before the cashier caught his attention.

 

Eren looked behind them to see Levi standing one person behind them.

“It-uh- it’s not really a new problem,” he stammered. Levi shrugged slightly.

“Different people have different turn ons.” He paused for a moment, his eyes shifting to the side slightly.

“If you had told me-”

“Not everyone reacts calmly to it.”

He could feel his face slowly heating up at their discussion. He never thought he’d be so grateful to Jean as he was dragged over so that the next person could place their order.

 

“I swear I didn’t see him,” Jean’s frantic whisper in his ear made him feel a little better about how the entire situation was going. At the same time, he could hear all the college students giggling about it and he wondered what website that conversation was going on. He could feel even more heat entering his cheeks at it all and he suddenly wished that he hadn’t taken the free coffee after all.

 

Their order came up and he was startled when another hand snagged the drink Jean reached for. Jean made a sound of protest as they both turned to see Levi.

“You still owe me a coffee Kirschstein.” Eren had never been so amused to hear Jean actually unable to say anything. A side glance at Levi suggested he was also enjoying this situation as he took a sip of the drink.

 

He made a face and shoved it back at Jean.

“What. Is. That. Atrocity,” he snarled. Jean’s face took on a brief flash of horror before turning down into a scowl.

“That’s a caramel macchiato.”

“It’s fucking sugar is what it is. I can’t believe you drink that.”

“I didn’t tell you to steal it.” Eren slipped away to add the raw sugar and cinnamon to his latte while the two argued. He heard Levi’s name being called over the counter before he darted to grab a table.

 

Jean joined him at the table, smirking. He didn’t know why the idiot was so happy when he had just looked terrified at his senior. It slipped back to a moment of terror when Levi sat down across from the two of them, his eyebrows creased slightly in displeasure. He glanced at Jean, his nerves running a little high now. His eyes darted around the store, surely there were other tables where the stylist could sit. There were a few empty tables and he wondered why he would sit with them.

 

“I always sit here.” Eren jumped, sloshing some of the latte on the table and stammering an apology while he grabbed the napkins. Luckily they were the closest table to the mini-station.

“S-s-sorry,” he muttered while sopping up the mess.

“You’re like a new pet,” Levi grumbled. “Cute and knocking stuff over everywhere.” He felt the red return to his cheeks and he buried his hands in his face.

“I-I’m sorry. I just, I didn’t expect to see you here or that you’d overhear… that.” Levi pulled away one of his hands and looked at him critically for a moment before leaning back and staring down Jean.

 

“What’s your game Kirschstein.” Jean snorted into his coffee, but made a point not to look at either Eren or Levi. Levi leaned forward on the table, forcibly grabbing Jean’s attention.

“Tell me you didn’t do this on purpose.”

“What on purpose?” Eren asked, finally daring to take a sip of his latte. Jean glanced towards him before looking out the window. Levi seemed to deflate a little when Jean didn’t give into his staredown.

“I always take lunch at this time and he’s been talking to Petra,” Levi growled. Eren was slightly confused.

“What’s wrong with talking to Petra?” he asked. Jean glanced at Eren for a moment before looking back out the window and coughing.

“I should head back. Enjoy lunch Levi.” Jean seemed to leave in a huge hurry and he was watching him scurry out with great confusion.

 

He glanced back at Levi with a confused look. Levi wasn’t looking in his direction anymore though. He stared down at his drink and sipped at it, wincing slightly that it had lost most of it’s heat.

“Get another one.” Eren’s head jerked up, staring at Levi in disbelief.

“Go get another one,” he repeated.

“I don’t like wasting food,” Eren muttered. Levi snorted, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

“I’ll finish it. I’m assuming you didn’t add more than that one packet of sugar.” He shook his head and hesitated for a moment before handing over the latte and watching Levi take a small sip. He caught the slight grimace but there was a slight thoughtfulness afterwards.

“Cinnamon?” He gave a small nod and finally scooted out of his seat to join the longer line now when Levi shooed him off.

 

He couldn’t shake off the feeling of being watched while he was in the line, but every time he glanced around he couldn’t catch anyone’s eye. The process continued until he sat back down with his sugar-cinnamon latte. The warmth settled in his throat well and he hummed happily.

“Better?”

“Much,” he replied. Levi replied with a hum of his own while he ate his sandwich. He glanced at the latte cup in Levi’s hand. He felt slightly relieved that Levi hadn’t just taken the drink because he found it too cold now.

 

There were a few moments of silence while they enjoyed their drinks and Levi worked on his lunch. Eren eventually glanced at the sandwich and back up at Levi.

“If you live close by wouldn’t it be better to make lunch?” He glanced up at the food selection. “The food isn’t too bad for breakfast, but the price for a good lunch portion is a bit over the top.” Levi shrugged and wiped his fingers on one of his napkins.

“It would end up being the same price really. This is closer to work.” Eren was confused, that didn’t make any sense. He had been making lunch for himself while in college and he ended up saving more money for pretty decent portions.

 

“I can’t cook.” Eren’s head snapped up at Levi’s voice. His brows furrowed as his mind tried to make sense of the sentence.

“Okay, the most I can manage is toast and Hanji comes over and cooks occasionally.”

“You have a full kitchen and you barely cook?” Eren raised an eyebrow. Levi gave a small nod before looking out the window and sipping at the latte. He noticed that there wasn’t the look of disgust now, but he wasn’t sure if he really understood this Levi yet. He felt more closed off than the Levi he had met before.

 

“Could I make you dinner then?” Eren and Levi both looked startled. He couldn’t believe that those words had actually left his mouth. He thought he was done with embarrassing himself today but it seemed like he had quite met his quota for the day yet.

“Shit, can, can you ignore I said that? Especially since you don’t really know me.” He buried his face in his hands before grabbing his latte and looking the other way for a bit.

“It just sucks cooking for one person.” He really had to shut up now. “Armin usually has classes around dinner so he just buys food on campus and shit I’ll shut up before I make more of an ass out of myself.” A chuckle caught his attention and he glanced at Levi.

“Petra and Hanji were insisting on a get together soon. It usually involves one of them buying take out. I think they’d enjoy fresh food and buying the groceries anyways.” He stared at Levi, shocked at the offer.

 

Levi drained the rest of the cup and stood up, cup and plate in hand as he took them back to the counter.

He placed a hand on Eren’s shoulder, making him jump ever so slightly.

“When do your classes end on Friday?”

“T-Three,” he stammered. Levi gave a small nod.

“Feel free to drop by the salon after, Hanji can take you to my place. Give your idiot friend the grocery list.”

 

Eren stared as Levi left, his latte cooling once again. What had he just gotten himself into?


	3. Some comfort with a dash of insanity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren realises just what he offered to do, and tries not to feel too out of place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So lots of good news!  
> 1) Remmy has kindly agreed to beta this series so hopefully there will be less mistakes that make me want to put my head through a wall when I find them. (That said, if you find any of said mistakes please do point them out).  
> 2) I'm going to be working on this series for Camp Nano so hopefully that means the next update won't take over a month.  
> 3) School is now over so I should be able to write even more!  
> 4) This chapter is a monster. Not all of them will be this long.

“Armin, I'm an idiot.” Eren dropped his heads into his hands. Eren glanced up as the scratching of Armin’s pencil stopped, his eyes meeting the blond’s.

“What happened now?” he asked, putting his pencil down and focusing on Eren. They were supposed to be working on the assignment ‘individually’, but Eren asked for Armin’s help often enough for the harder questions that they ended up worked on it together. Eren figured that Armin didn't mind so long as he was actually doing his own work rather than copying Armin’s assignment.

 

“I need to figure out a meal for four people," Eren groaned. “Possibly dessert included.” He looked up as he heard the textbook close. Armin never stopped working for mundane reasons.

“Is this about making dinner for Jean's co-worker?” Armin asked.

“Well, yeah. I didn't exactly mean to offer, it just kinda fell out of my mouth and he agreed.”

“Are you complaining?” Armin raised an eyebrow. “I know you miss cooking proper meals for people. So what’s the real problem? Buying groceries?”

 

Eren shook his head.

“No, he said to send Jean the grocery list and stuff,” he replied.

“Then what's the problem?” Armin pushed.

“I don't know what to make. It's been so long and I just…” Eren bit his lip and looked to the side. "I want to make more than just spaghetti or something." Armin tapped his pencil thoughtfully against the desk.

“You might want to consider getting Petra or Hanji's number if this becomes a regular thing so you know if you should make dessert you know,” Armin mused.

 

Eren laughed at that thought, glancing at the series of numbers he had been working on before he looked back up at Armin.

“I doubt that's going to happen. Who wants to hang out with a shitty college student unless they're in college too.” He reached out to tweak Armin's nose. “Unless they know them already.” The blush that crossed Armin's face made the kick to his shin all the more worthwhile.

“Are you going to tell Mikasa?” Armin asked, twirling the pencil in his hand. He felt like Armin was digging for something beyond a simple dinner he had to make and the basic question he had asked. Armin was digging for something. He frowned and shook his head.

“She'd freak out,” Eren replied.

“With good reason,” Armin reasoned.

“I'm telling you aren't I? I'll let you know when I'm there, when we finish dinner and when I'm heading home. Geez, it's not like I'm meeting up with some psycho.”

“You don't know that,” Armin scolded. “How much do you even know about him to begin with?”

“He doesn't like sugar in his coffee, he can't cook and he's a naturally cranky person,"

“That's not an awful lot Eren. He could be one of those creepy people for all you know then."

 

Eren snickered.

“I don't know, anyone that can make Jean look that terrified in no time flat has something good going for them,” he argued lightly.

“I'm pretty sure a psychopath killer would make Jean look terrified as well,” Armin replied flatly. Eren glanced up at Armin and his face fell slightly.

“I'm sorry Armin, I didn't mean–”

“It's okay Eren, I'm just... it's a touchy day,” he sighed.

“Would you rather get back to the assignment then?” Eren asked, glancing guiltily at his numbers. He was about two steps away from solving it, once he could remember the stupid trig identities. Armin shook his head, smiling slightly at Eren.

 

“Let's try and solve your dinner problem first, but in return you have to make lunch today.” Eren glanced at the clock, mentally cataloguing what he had in his fridge.

“Is the grilled cheese okay?”

“As long as you make it your way,” Armin replied, with a slight grin. Eren chuckled and nodded.

“Deal then. What's your magical wisdom?”

“What haven't you made because you can't? Either because you would have to buy in bulk or the recipe can’t be modified to individual proportions?” Armin offered.

 

Eren leaned back in his chair, casting his brain around for recipes that he had come across, but had passed over just because he was cooking for himself in a dorm.

“It’s too cold out for steaks,” he muttered. He preferred grilling them to pan frying personally.

 

“Well then, what meat would you want to use?” Armin tried another approach.

“Well I want there to be leftovers that can be used for lunches too,” Eren mused. His eyes widened slightly and he slammed his hands on the table making Armin jump.

“ _Shit!_ Armin, I don’t even know if he has foods he won’t eat!”

 

Armin tried to hide his laugh, but the odd hiccup escaped from him and Eren could clearly see his shoulders shaking.

“Just get it out of your system,” he grumbled before slouching back into his seat. Peals of laughter filled the small room for the next few minutes and Eren tried to focus on the numbers again. Why was he finding calculus so hard when high school math had been so easy?

 

“S-sorry Eren,” Armin laughed. “It’s just— you’re normally so careful about that! Maybe a homestyle meal then? Most people are fine with those.” Eren looked thoughtful, it had been a long time since he’d been able to make a family meal. A sad smile crossed his face for a moment before it lit up.

 

“I know what I’m going to make!” Eren clapped. He just had to make sure that he was remembering the recipe correctly now, or maybe Mikasa had a copy of it somewhere. It might even be in the recipe boxes at home.

 

“Good, then you can finish your assignment,” Armin suggested. Eren’s smile fell slightly as he looked back down at the numbers.

“Armin what am I doing wrong? I can’t use this in the formulas we have,” he pleaded. Armin looked up for a moment, grabbing Eren’s paper and looking over it quickly. He felt his phone vibrate on the table, but he ignored it for the moment to watch Armin pour over his scribbles.

 

“I think I know what you’re doing wrong but you’re not going to like what I suggest so you get it,” Armin wavered.

Eren groaned.

“Just tell me Armin,” he pleaded. Armin gave him a remorseful smile.

“Start the problem from scratch, without looking at your first attempt.” Eren stared at him for a moment, with only the buzzing of his phone breaking the silence.

“You’re right, I don’t like it.” He sighed, shoving his glasses back up his nose. “But if you say that’ll work it’ll probably work.” He pulled a fresh sheet towards him to start the problem over again as Armin’s phone vibrated across the table.

 

The blond glanced at the screen before smiling sadly.

“Jean wants you to check your phone,” he said. Eren scowled before unlocking his phone to glance through the texts.

“He’s an asshole for telling you that,” he grumbled. “He just wants to know why the fuck Petra told him to make sure he gets the grocery list by Wednesday.”

 

He could see some of the tension leaving Armin’s shoulders and he couldn’t help but feel the slight guilt that settled over him.

“Armin you know–” he started.

“Yes I know Eren. I can’t control what I feel though.” A bitter smile crossed over his face. “It would help so much if I could though.” His face lightened a little. “It does help that I can at least talk about it with you though. Even though sometimes I want to just dunk your head into cold water to get you to shut up.” Eren grinned.

“Hey, if it gets you out of a funk I’m willing to get my head dunked into cold water,” he offered. Armin laughed.

“Now answer him before he starts getting annoyed at both of us,” he teased.

 

Eren rolled his eyes before he unlocked his phone

 

**_Eren_ ** _3:26pm: I’m making dinner for your senior on Fri._

 

He set his phone aside, intent to retry the problem when his phone buzzed not once, but three times in a row. He groaned and rested his head against the desk while Armin laughed.

“He just isn’t going to stop is he?” he grumbled.

“He might keep it up just to annoy you,” Armin admitted.

“Would you–?” he started

“No.”

 

Eren sighed and stared at his phone, barely glancing at Jean’s messages as he typed. Too bad Armin wouldn’t get Jean off his back.

**_Eren_ ** _3:27pm: Fuck off, I’m trying to work._

He didn’t even manage to lock the screen before the conversation updated.

**_Jean_ ** _3:28pm: Answer the fucking question first and I’ll leave you the fuck alone for now._

He scowled at the phone and glanced up at the previous three messages.

**_Jean_ ** _3:26pm: WHAT?!_

**_Jean_ ** _3:26pm: I thought Petra and Hanji were just messing with the dude_

**_Jean_ ** _3:27pm: You don’t seriously have the hots for him do you?_

He could feel his face flushing as another text came through.

**_Jean_ ** _3:29pm: Give me a fucking answer Jaegar._

He started typing furiously.

**_Eren_ ** _3:30pm: What the fuck Jean. I’ve met the guy TWICE adn the second time was all your fault soo I heard, thanks for that btw. Maybe I just fuckking miss cooking for people and having an actuall oven. Maybe I accidentally offered and armin’s already chewing me out aboutt it. Now shut the fuck up!_

 

He changed his phone profile to silent and set it as far away as he could. He knew Armin wanted to ask about the texts, and he appreciated his friend’s silence as he picked up a pencil again and set it to the paper once again.

 

He hit the same point he had gotten stuck at again, but this time his answer was different and he could properly apply it. He frowned slightly and looked up, slightly startled to see Armin paying more attention to his phone than the homework. He glanced back down at the question and mentally noted to thank him. As well as ask what the hell he had done wrong in the first place and how Armin had managed to know what he should do. He wasn’t going to wipe that smile off of his best friend’s face. He glanced up again to take in Armin’s angelic smile and felt the edges of his mouth twitch up.

 

It was hard not to interfere sometimes.

* * *

 

He couldn’t quite quell the nerves that had built up over the last few days when he pushed open the door for the salon. He gave Petra a small and nervous smile when he caught her eye. He sat down when she waved him to a seat, her ear pressed to the phone receiver. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect tonight.

 

He hoped that Hanji was going to come out soon, his nerves were starting to get the best of him. He fidgeted with the strap of his bag. He didn’t want to tell them to pick up some of the sauces when he made the grocery list, especially when he had them lying around anyways. It had been simple enough to just toss them into containers and toss those into plastic bags, just in case they leaked.

 

“Eren! You’re early!” He smiled slightly as Petra clicked the phone back into it’s place. “Give me a minute and I’ll just go and grab Hanji.” He opened his mouth to say she didn’t have to bother, but Petra was already away from her desk and partway across the floor. Yelling across all the hair dryers wouldn’t be the best idea so opted to slouch in his seat instead.

 

He didn’t expect his first meeting with Hanji to result in a sudden face full of hair that zoomed out to a face and his body was left with the vague impression he had been hugged.

“Eren! It’s so good to actually meet you! I’m Hanji Zoe, but if you call me Zoe at any point your face will meet the floor.”

 

He must have had a ridiculous face on because Petra was laughing and Hanji looked like she was two seconds from laughing.

“Anyway lets be off and bother the Scrooge.” Hanji’s voice seemed more amused than when he had heard her during his last appointment and he groaned slightly. He hadn’t thought that any of Levi’s friends would be that excitable.

 

He shifted the bag on his shoulder and smiled slightly before getting up and opening the door, looking at Hanji. She laughed and headed out with a comment about how gentlemanly he was acting now. He glanced at Petra quizzically for a moment, wondering if she was coming with them when she shook her head.

“My shift ends later, I’ll be done by dinner time though,” she explained. He hesitated a moment before offering a smile back.

“I’ll try to make sure they don’t eat it all then.”

“Please do.” There was definitely a laugh in her voice at that comment. He followed Hanji outside and enjoyed all of five seconds of silence before the questions started.

 

“So Eren, what made you want to cook for our Levi?” He could almost swear that there was a hidden question there and something about her tone made him shiver. He shrugged, there wasn’t that much to it after all.

“I was just surprised that he didn’t make his lunch so I offered. I haven’t been able to cook as much as I like lately.” He gave Hanji a small smile. “The dorm kitchens don’t have ovens so it cuts out a lot of meals I’d like to make and I don’t have many people to share with either so that cuts out even more recipes.” He made a face. “Or you could just say I’m sick of counting dollars when I grocery shop and wanted to make something nice.”

 

“You’re sick of counting dollars and you’re making chicken pot pie?” Hanji laughed. “Why didn’t you just ask for steaks or something then?” Eren’s smile grew a little strained.

“I prefer to grill steaks and it’s still a little cold out for that. I uh… also realised a little late that I had no idea what Levi wouldn’t eat, so chicken pot pie became a pretty safe bet because he’d at least eat pieces of that.” He tried to will the colour in his face to go down. It had been a stupid mistake to make and hopefully she wouldn’t make fun of him for it.

 

“That’s actually pretty smart,” Hanji admitted. “Well for future reference then! Levi loves Italian food, especially a well made pasta from scratch. He hates sweets though, with very few exceptions, one of which you’ll be seeing later tonight.” She winked at him. “He’s a little touchy with spicy foods, but since he can’t cook he’s always willing to try new dishes.”

 

Eren frowned slightly at her.

“You’re talking like this is going to happen again,” he said slowly.

“Well it might depending on how tonight goes won’t it?” she replied. “OH! Know what? You should just give me your number. Levi probably wouldn’t give you his, I had to offer all sorts of things to get his number. At least if I have yours though there’ll be a more direct means of communication since I see him fairly often.” Eren nodded slightly, that would make sense but only if this was something they wanted to do more often.

“Oh, I’ll have to remember to text my friend when we get there and through the night,” he mumbled. It was more to remind himself than to inform Hanji, but she seemed to latch on anyways.

 

“Yes, we should find where Levi stashes all his bodies and you can text him the pictures,” she laughed evilly. Eren was beginning to understand why Levi had gone out of his way to make some part of her life hell by saying his next appointment would be free. If Levi had to deal with her on a daily basis he had more self control than Eren thought.

“Seriously though, it’s good you’re being safe,” Hanji continued. “Not many guys would even consider that.” [4] 

He laughed slightly.

“If I hadn’t told him I was doing that much he’d tell my sister and we’d all be in huge trouble.”

“Oh, overprotective?” Hanji asked.

“Understatement.”

“Well you might want to let her know when the night’s over then. Build up some credit towards yourself,” Hanji advised. Eren lifted an eyebrow as they slowed down.

“You have an overprotective sibling?” he asked. Hanji shook her head and smiled fondly. He didn’t inquire further as they continued along the street, letting her have the memory.

 

“Jean mentioned you said not to worry about dessert.” He broke the silence. Hanji turned and grinned at him.

“You’ll see,” she teased. “There should be some treat for you too after all!”

Eren paused for a moment, slightly startled by that idea.

“Does Levi know?” he asked, starting to walk again. He was curious how much they had clued him in for the meal plan of the night.

“Nah, it’s a small bit of payback really. He’ll figure it out pretty quickly though. But it’s also just fun to watch him figure dishes out sometimes when I come over and cook.” She paused for a moment before whining, “He was so mean when he told us you were cooking too. He told us we weren’t cooking and he would and we were trying to talk him around it when he told us.” Eren didn’t quite catch the rest of the whining before Hanji whirled around, walking backwards.

 

“So Eren,” Hanji began, “You dating anyone, or any crushes? Maybe Jean?” she asked.

It took him a few moments to collect his thoughts so that he wouldn’t splutter all over her as he looked agast.

“ _Jean?_ ” He almost dropped his bag. “No. _Fuck no_.” At the very least Armin would kill him. They’d never find his body, Mikasa might even consider helping him hide the body. Hanji stared at him for a moment before grinning happily and turning back to face the right way.

“Nope! But that answered one question, you haven’t answered the other yet!”

Eren choked before answering, “I’m not seeing anyone. School’s a bit busy to be looking anyways.” He really wanted to know where this was going now, but he didn’t think that she’d just tell him.

 

It looked like Hanji wanted to ask further questions, but instead she let out one final breath before heading into a building, humming as she opened the door with a key. Eren hurried behind her.

“Do you live here too?”

“Oh no, I live on the outskirts, less complaints about noise that way.” Eren frowned slightly.

“Then are you?” He wasn’t sure how to word his inquiry without sounded like he was interested or prying.

“Oh no no no no, we aren’t seeing each other that way. I pretty much just make sure Levi has _some_ sort of social life going on and some excitement. Levi’s single but I…” she frowned slightly. “I guess you could say I’m taken.”

 

Eren offered her a small smile.

“The same person that’s overprotective?” he asked.

Hanji nodded,

“That’s the one! Keeps me out of trouble, or tries to at least.”

“You get into trouble a lot?” he asked.

“Weeeellll depends who you talk to. Levi would call me suicidal, Petra would probably say overenthusiastic,” she explained while mashing the elevator button.

 

The elevator was rather fast for an apartment building and in almost no time they were getting off onto the fifth floor. Hanji sighed slightly while twirling her keyring around. Eren paused as Hanji continued down the hall to shoot Armin a quick text. They weren’t _in_ the apartment yet but close enough.

“Is something wrong?” he asked as he pocketed his cellphone. She hesitated for a moment before knocking, almost startling Eren out of his skin.

“I just wish I could open the door,” she whined. “We agreed I wouldn’t just go in anymore until he opened it though.” Eren was slightly confused. Waiting for the person to open the door was normal right? He was going to ask her about it until the door jerked open.

 

“Why don’t you go complain to someone that gives a fuck Hanji.” Eren hoped that Levi hadn’t caught that slight hitch in his breath. He looked different now, he felt different. The glasses were gone now,and he didn’t realize until now just how odd Levi’s eyes were. The color of them at least. He found his eyes wandering around the shorter man’s face, and settling on the odd shape his hair had been molded into. He had taken Levi to be a stickler for appearances, but it seemed not. At least until Hanji brought it up. He fumbled at Hanji’s instructions and barely managed to keep upright as he toed his shoes off. He barely heard Hanji say something about a movie and glanced up, just realising the somewhat familiar tune playing, but he couldn’t quite place it.

 

“What movie?” he asked curiously. Levi glanced at him for a moment, and his answer made the music all the more clearer in his head. He smiled slightly; he enjoyed listening to How to Train Your Dragon when he needed background noise when studying some times. He didn’t take Levi as the sort of person to enjoy animated movies though.

“You watch Disney movies?” he blurted, almost immediately regretting opening his mouth. How to Train Your Dragon wasn’t a Disney movie, he _knew_ it wasn’t a Disney movie. He felt even more embarrassed when Levi pointed it out to him as well. He had barely even entered the apartment and already his mouth was running away with his brain. He glanced around the apartment while Levi scolded his runaway mouth. To his left he could barely see a counter through the doorframe, and another exit from the little box straight ahead. Further on he could see the couch and as far as he could tell the sound was originating there. He almost jumped when he felt a kick behind him, that would be the last time he didn’t keep an eye on where Levi was.

 

He almost laughed as Levi gave him directions to the washroom, tied in with a horrible shit joke. It was certainly one way to try and get him comfortable in his home. He still couldn’t quite calm his nerves though and found his gaze drifting towards the kitchen. Would it be rude if he just started the appetizers now? The question was easily answered when Levi practically kicked him to the kitchen verbally. He almost laughed again, thinking of how Mikasa would react if she could see this. He grinned when Levi told Hanji to show him the kitchen layout, until he realised something.

 

“What are you going to do?” he asked as he entered the kitchen. It didn’t seem like Levi was planning to help out. He frowned slightly when Levi answered that he was just going to stand in the doorway and watch them. The angle from the doorway was pretty bad, so Levi wouldn’t really be able to watch the preparation work. He was firmly rooted in the opinion that no one was completely incompetent in the kitchen. Jean had been pretty bad to begin with until he started teaching him other ways to cook so he stopped slicing his fingers open.

“You should at least watch so you might pick up something,” he argued. Some times it was the smallest tricks that made things so much easier. Besides, making the food made it all that more delicious as well, unless fire happened, then it just tasted like charcoal. Armin said it was something about effort, but he hadn’t really been paying attention. If Levi really didn’t want to cook though, he’d have to do something else so the man would pay attention.

 

His eyes gleamed with an idea. Pop quizzes were the necessity of studying and he suggested as such while he stared down Levi, daring him to say no. He wasn’t too old to learn. He knew he could help Levi cook. He could feel his lips turn up slightly when Levi’s gaze dropped, knowing the answer that would fall from his lips. He didn’t expect him to settle into his position leaning on the doorway though. It was hardest to see things from there, especially given that Eren was right handed. Eren knew that he had given in though and would at least be paying attention and decided not the press the matter. He would just have to verbalise a lot more of what he was doing. He sighed mentally, maybe he’d be able to come back push him a little further.

 

“Okay.” Now, where should he start? Levi knowing what he was making was probably a good first step.

“Did Hanji or Petra tell you what I was planning to make?” he asked. A bundle of nerves was growing tenser as Levi answered. What if Levi hated chicken? What if Levi was vegetarian? No, Hanji and Petra would have let him know that much when they got the grocery list. He still felt a little guilty for how much they’d had to buy because he wasn’t sure what Levi had on hand. He barely caught that he was biting his lip again, he really had to get rid of that habit unless he wanted massive amounts of blood everywhere.

 

He relaxed a little when Levi said that he had looked in the fridge but had no idea what they were making. He didn’t mention anything he didn’t like and Eren felt a slight wave of relief pass through him. Unfortunately his nerves seemed to have run to his mouth instead.

“Well Petra got a bit more than what’s in the fridge because I didn’t know what you had. I’m going to be making two things though, since you suggested I get here earlier I thought I’d do up an appetizer and then the main dish. Hanji told me she’d take care of dessert.” He stopped himself when Levi’s look changed and he glanced at Hanji.

 

Usual? Eren glanced at Hanji as she answered Levi. What was usual? That felt cruel that he didn’t know what she was making. He took a deep breath to calm down before saying all that he had _meant_ to say, rather than the mess his nerves had spewed out of his mouth earlier.

“Anyways I was going to make pot stickers and then I’m going to make chicken pot pie. I’m going to be using the frozen puff pastry though,” he trailed off. Frozen puff pastry wasn’t quite as nice, but it was easier and fairly cheap to buy. He caught his lip in his teeth again, not certain if Levi would mind that it was frozen.

 

Eren tried hard not to smile while the two argued about Levi’s tastes, but eventually he had to duck his head behind his hand to hide one. His worries were dissipated and he felt like he had an idea of why they were friends, and that Hanji had a key. He took another deep breath and let it out with an ‘okay then’ before he started going through the fridge, mentally checking off items as he took them out. All of the meat and greens were out, now he was just missing utensils. He glanced at Hanji who was preparing her own corner of the kitchen closest to Levi. Levi had told her to show him where everything was right?

“Um,” he wasn’t sure how to catch her attention. His eyes darted back to Levi when he offered advice to be more assertive. He wondered just what Levi had said before when she wasn’t paying attention to know that she would catch any opportunity to insert herself into someone’s life. He snapped out of the train of thought before he raised his voice slightly.

“Hanji,” Eren called. She still wasn’t replying, but Levi kicking her seemed to evoke a response from both cooks.

 

He was still trying to calm his racing heart from Hanji’s shriek when she asked what he needed. He started mentally going through the list, saying them out one by one. He took note as Hanji flitted around the kitchen, taking particular note of where the cutting boards, spices and knives were.

 

It felt strange working in a different kitchen. For one there was so much more room here than in his dorm so Eren could keep the ingredients for the pot stickers separate from the chicken. He started the oven, setting it to three fifty. Hopefully by the time he had the dough for the pot stickers done and the chicken prepped, the oven would be ready.

 

Making the dough for the pot stickers was easy for him, mostly from the practice he had from making them at school for their friends and for easy lunches. It would also give Levi a chance to help with the cooking. Eren asked Hanji for some wax paper and would have been beaned in the head with it if he hadn’t turned slightly towards her at the right time. He layered the round pieces of dough to prevent them from sticking to each other before he washed his hands. He glanced up at the ceiling as he recalled the ingredients for the filling before he started mincing up ingredients. He washed his hands again, cursing that he hadn’t gotten the containers out earlier so he had to wash his hands more frequently. He only hoped that he wouldn’t end up washing his hands raw today. He quickly checked the label on the top of the container, thanking what little memory he had that he had actually remembered to label them. The contents were dumped into the bowl as he glanced over at Levi. He finished mixing the filling before waving Levi in, he would definitely be able to do this much. Levi hesitated, as he thought he would, but Eren didn’t expect Hanji to drag the man in.

 

He smiled slightly before gesturing at the wrappers.

“You should be able to do this much.” He had taken out the plate meant for uncooked pot stickers earlier, with a layer of wax paper to stop them from sticking to the plate. He grabbed one of the top wrappers and his mixing spoon. He didn’t have to put it as a line, but it made it easier to fold. He pressed the edges together with some of the filling poking out.

“Just keep them apart or they’ll stick,” he advised. He watched Levi carefully, making sure the other was comfortable with the task. After he finished his first one, Eren smiled and started preparing the chicken.

 

It took him a moment to remember all the tips his mother had taught him. He knew he was forgetting something, he had washed the chicken, and there was something between the skin and breast... the oranges. He had forgotten to take the oranges out of the fridge. He cursed quietly, earning a quick glance and grin from Hanji.

 

He washed his hands _yet again_ , which for some reason Hanji found absolutely hilarious. He stuck out his tongue at her before glancing towards Levi. There weren’t many dumplings on the plate yet, but he seemed to be moving at a steady pace. He returned to preparing the chicken, adding the rub, thankfully he remembered to make that before touching the meat again.

 

He smiled slightly when he felt Levi’s eyes on him as he stuffed the orange slices into the breast and the remaining quarters into the cavity before rubbing the bird down.

 

Hanji’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“Eren, you’re a student right? What’s your major?” she asked. Eren smiled slightly as he placed the chicken in the roasting pan (why did Levi have so many kitchen utensils if he couldn’t cook?) before washing his hands _again_.

“I’m a second year in engineering, specialising in biomedical engineering.” He had expected the surprised look but not for Hanji bursting out laughing.

 

“Oh my god, no wonder Levi was rambling about how bad your hair was!” Hanji was hunched over laughing by the stove. Eren could feel a blush starting in his cheeks as he put the chicken in the oven and set the timer.

“Well if I had known Jean wasn’t there I would have washed it,” he mumbled. “It isn’t normally that bad.” Hanji waved him off as she took in deep breaths.

“Washing might. Be. A good idea.” Hanji had to pause to breathe now and then. They glanced over at Levi and both of them laughed slightly at his obliviousness to the conversation.

 

Levi’s plate of pot stickers was almost full so he ripped off another section of wax paper and placed it on top. He smiled slightly, it seemed that Levi was also getting much faster and precise. He kept an eye on how many of the wrappers were left as he started to wash the cutting board and counter.

“If you leave it Levi will get to it later,” Hanji suggested. Eren shook his head.

“I’m going to need the counter later so I’d rather know it’s clean now,” he replied as Hanji glanced at the clock.

“Petra will probably be here soon. Her shift ended about five minutes ago.”

Eren glanced over at Levi. He was so tuned in the doorbell would probably startle him out of the dumpling zone. At least, that’s what Eren called it. There was just something about making dumplings that let you either shift away from everything or for enemies to be friends chatting about the weather.

 

So when the doorbell rang, Hanji was practically out the door already and he managed to catch Levi before he possibly threw the food everywhere. He smiled as he informed Levi that Hanji was already answering the door.

“No need to look so pleased with yourself,” Levi snapped. Eren couldn’t keep the smile off his face. He didn’t know if Levi was even aware of how much he had improved over the short duration, or that he was helping cook the meal.

“You were just so into it. Even this is considered cooking you know,” he reassured. Levi didn’t seem to be impressed at all. Eren frowned slightly, he would have thought that he’d have at least some feeling of accomplishment. His thoughts were interrupted as Hanji returned with Petra.

 

He wasn’t sure how he managed to not laugh as the three bantered about the cost of groceries. Levi definitely had an odd way of expressing his affection. Eren estimated that Levi had made it through over three quarters of the wrappers. They should probably start them now, especially since everyone had arrived.

“Well since we’re all here now I guess I can make the first batch of pot stickers.” He turned slightly in surprise at Petra’s clap of delight.

“Can I watch? I always end up burning mine to the pot, I’d love to see your secret,” she asked. He could feel his face starting to heat up again.

 

“I just copied a recipe from a Chinese cookbook a friend had,” he muttered. “I’m not sure how much help it’ll be. Do you use premade wrappers or do you make your own?” he asked. Petra frowned slightly.

“I use the store bought ones,” she replied. “Is that a bad thing?”

Eren shrugged. “They’re usually pretty thin unless you buy the right brand. If you look at the wrappers we have here that’s about the usual thickness I have and then they don’t rip when you’re prying them off the pot. I can show you how I cook them right now if you like? I was going to show Levi how to cook them anyways.”

Petra frowned, her hand going to her hip and Eren suddenly got a horrible feeling that she was going to tell him off for something. Mikasa had a similar look on her face whenever he had done something wrong, so had his mom.

 

“Levi isn’t going to cook. Not until there’s a fire extinguisher in here. Understood?” she demanded. He glanced between Levi and Petra, barely noticing the slight glaze to his eyes.

“It’s really that bad?” he asked. She smiled slightly and relaxed.

“Worse, she admitted.

“Okay then,” he conceded. “He should know how it’s cooked at least though.”

She lifted her hands in surrender.

“All in your hands,” she accepted. Hanji laughed in the doorway as Eren set the pan onto the stove and carefully placed the large lid to the side. The preparation for them was almost second nature to him now.

“So I add just a half teaspoon of oil to the pan, but wait for it to heat up before I add in the first batch. I usually have to add a bit more oil after each batch,” he explained. Petra nodded and held her hand over the pan.

“That might be what I’m doing wrong, I don’t usually add more oil besides at the start,” she muttered. Eren smiled slightly and glanced around the kitchen.

“While that’s heating up… where’s the kettle?” It would be best to start the water boiling now while the oil heated. Petra found and filled the kettle to minimum before plugged it in.

 

“Is that a small trick you use as well? The water’s boiled beforehand?” she asked. Eren smiled slightly and shrugged.

“I haven’t tried it the other way yet to be honest,” he admitted. “Are there any small bowls? For dip?” he asked. He was usually more prepared for this, although Armin and Jean were usually helping out too. Maybe he had just gotten too used to their dynamic. Hanji grinned and opened a cupboard and took out four small dishes.

“It’s the container in my bag,” he informed her. She pried open the lid and sniffed at the sauce before grinning.

“I can’t wait for them to be ready,” she whimpered.

“Food poisoning is your choice,” Eren warned. He was slightly worried that she might eat one anyways and held a hand over the pan before glanced quickly over at the kettle.

 

It was close enough to boiling that he could start the first batch. The stickers sizzled as he filled the pan, with a small amount of space in between each one. The bottoms crisped fast enough, and he felt elated that the kettle boiled just in time.

He frowned slightly when Levi jumped as he poured the water over the pan.

 

He covered the pan quickly before he turned to look at Levi.

“You weren’t paying attention were you?” he asked disapprovingly. He barely noticed Hanji making her exit a little too quickly after setting an egg timer, his gaze focused on Levi’s startled face.

“It seemed like you were just comparing recipes,” Levi stated.

 

Eren sighed, even if they had been comparing recipes a lot could be learned. Petra snapped him out of those thoughts quickly enough, pointing out how Levi didn’t pay much attention if he didn’t understand something, and felt a little guilty in retrospect. He did the same thing in class as well after all. He met Levi’s eyes, he did want to learn right? He wasn’t forcing Levi to do something he didn’t want to do? A wave of relief swept over him as Levi stepped closer to the pot, showing some interest.

 

He wasn’t quite as upbeat, but kept a close eye on Levi as he reexplained the process, it was a little harder for him since he liked to demonstrate as he walked through recipes. Levi’s interruption caught him off guard and it took him a few seconds to realise it meant Levi hadn’t been watching like he had thought. Petra took that moment to escape as well, judging by how fast she darted out the door.

 

“You weren’t watching?” He slowly deflated. He knew he should have dragged Levi into the kitchen so that he’d see more, so that his field of view more focused.

“It doesn’t mean that I knew what everything was.” Levi’s voice felt like a slap across his consciousness. How stupid of him to jump to conclusions like that, to assume that Levi was familiar with the ingredients he had used. He forgot that there were a few of them that weren’t widely used.

“Well it’s ground beef and I minced ginger and chives. There’s some green onions in there too but in thin slices. You know what mincing is right?” He didn’t want to make any more mistakes by assuming what Levi knew. He couldn’t help but laugh at Levi’s response, mush was definitely one way to describe mincing, and so similar to how Mikasa would describe the process.

 

He continued the list of ingredients, looking upwards for a moment while he searched his memory. No, he wasn’t missing anything. There was the odd time when he did forget to add an ingredient and the recipe wasn’t quite the same.

 

Levi snapped his attention back to check the pot and his heart raced, he had almost forgotten to check on them. He glanced up at the oven timer, he guessed that it had been about four minutes since they had gone in, so it was more than likely they were done. He picked up the empty plate on the side as he lifted the lid, leaning away from the steam that erupted. He lifted them off the bottom and placed them carefully on the plate. He didn’t bother about the presentation. If this was a formal get together rather than his hair stylist and his friends he might have bothered. If Jean was over he probably would have cared about presentation just to piss him off.

 

He handed Levi the plate with a smile.

“Petra told me not to have you try cooking yet so do you just want to take it out to them?” he asked. “The dipping sauce is over in the blue bowls in the corner.” He pointed towards them with a nod of his head.

 

He was impressed with how well Levi balanced everything on his arms. He drew his attention back to the pan, glancing up briefly when Levi asked a question.

“You’re going to be okay in there?” Levi asked. Eren smiled slightly, it was nice that he cared. He glanced briefly at Hanji’s egg timer, there was less than ten minutes on it so he should be fine.

“Hanji’s going to have to check her mix in a few minutes anyways. I’ll just be putting the rest on another plate as they’re done. I’ll send them out with her then.” He smiled, it was really nice cooking for people again, especially when they cared. He restarted the process, humming slightly as he finished filling the pan.

 

He had fun racing himself for the next eight minutes, seeing how many more he could fold before those in the pan were browned. He did a quick count of how many were left as he poured water into the pot again and covered it. He glanced up at the time, and over at Hanji’s timer. He couldn’t stop the smile from crossing his face. If he was lucky, and timed everything properly then Hanji should have the kitchen to herself when her timer went off. He wasn’t sure if he could deal with her flipping topics and general excitement much.

 

He finished folding the rest of the pot stickers while the batch steamed. He glanced at the oven timer, making sure he still had time. His gaze fell to the corner Hanji had been working in, finding his curiosity piqued and enough time to investigate what she was making. Judging by the ingredients that she had out, she was baking, but he wasn’t quite sure what.

 

He wasn’t familiar with baking, Mikasa and Armin did most of the baking for their get togethers, so he had trouble figuring out what different batters might make. Besides there were so many possible combinations with the same ingredients. Most of all though, he wasn’t sure why she had set a timer. Armin and Mikasa only really did that when they were trying to make bread.

 

He was surprised that Hanji hadn’t come back in yet, especially since there was only about ten seconds left on the timer. It went off as he grabbed the plate filled with the rest of the pot stickers and hummed as he headed out to the living room, just barely catching a snippet of the conversation.

“I really do need to get this recipe off him though.” Petra sounded frustrated.

“I would just see how it turns out when you add the oil in batches first,” he commented. He was slightly startled when they all jumped, he wasn’t trying to be particularly quiet. Had he really startled them all that much? He glanced over at Hanji, curious why she wasn’t even panicking about her timer.

“I just thought you’d like to know that your timer went off,” he stated. He was surprised that her reaction didn’t make him jump or even flinch, maybe knowing that most of the remaining dumplings would probably topple on the floor and he’d have several people wanting to kill him for wasting the food.

 

He carefully placed the plate on the table before he slid into a chair. The dumplings from the first batch were still warm, and he knew he wouldn’t burn his tongue on them compared to the plate he brought out. He smiled slightly as he savoured the first bite. It felt like it had been too long since he had made them. The screams in the kitchen drew his attention and he wondered if they were alright. Levi seemed to be completely comfortable though, so maybe it was a usual occurrence.

“Are they always like this?” he asked. He wasn’t sure if he’d want to do this again if it meant dealing with Hanji.

“On bad days,” Levi replied with a shrug. “Hanji usually needs a handler in the kitchen or her enthusiasm overflows into too much cooking, not enough paying attention and not enough cleaning. Moblit’s pretty good at keeping her reined in. Although that may have something to do with how the two are old long-distance sweethearts.” Eren found that idea a little sweet and found his thoughts jolted by Hanji’s interruption.

“We aren’t sweethearts,” Hanji argued, flopping back into her chair. He stared at her wide-eyed as she started eating again.“We’re a complementary pair. There’s nothing romantic about it.”

 

“What was that at New Year’s then?” Levi’s question shot across his mind and Eren felt his curiosity flare. Hanji stared at him, looking betrayed.

“I– you – DID YOU DO THAT ON PURPOSE?” she shrieked. Eren winced slightly at her voice. She was way too close and he could feel his ears ring. He glanced over and met Levi’s eyes, just able to make out some movement of his lips. I told you… he couldn’t quite make out the rest. Something that ended in ‘thusiam’. ‘Enthusiam’ maybe, given the situation. He fidgeted under the table slightly. He was just reminded of how Armin and Jean were dancing around each other, more than friends but not more yet.

“But if you don’t push at a relationship how do you know if you’re really comfortable?” he found himself asking. Armin would give anything to change his situation, but he could understand his terror about taking that next step. “I mean, if something happens at least you know if you work in that level or not, and if you’re already good friends you can work it out.” God he really hoped that was true.

 

Hanji was quick to snap him out of that revelation.

“It sounds like you’re talking through experience Eren.” Hanji was suddenly far too close to him and he found himself leaning back from that terrifying smile.“I’d love to know where it came from.”

“HANJI ZOE. YOU ARE NOT LEAVING ME HERE TO CLEAN UP YOUR MESS.” He needed to make Petra something nice. Something beautiful for saving him from answering that question. Especially since Jean was one of their coworkers.

“Oh and there’s just five minutes on the timer for the chicken now Eren.” He nodded , confirming he heard. He offered Levi a small smile.

“Next lesson then,” he suggested.

 

He frowned as Levi groaned, how would he learn if he didn’t at least observe. He found that most basic mistakes in the kitchen were solved just through observation. Jean in particular had a fondness for banging his head against the cupboards when he realised some stupid little trick that hadn’t occurred to him. The wave Levi gave irritated him slightly until his voice broke through the irritation.

“I’m coming, I’m just not looking forward to seeing what mess Hanji’s made so that Petra’s screaming at her,” Levi grumbled.

 

That actually made sense. He actually felt a little bad now for thinking that he didn’t want to learn. Hanji had made quite the mess too from what he recalled, and he hadn’t been in the kitchen recently.

“It looks like it will be worthwhile at least,” he half-lied. He wasn’t entirely sure what she was making but it already smelt quite heavenly.

“It is or she wouldn’t be allowed in there,” Levi snorted. Eren grinned, but wasn’t quite sure what to say about that.

 

He had gotten the vegetables out at the very beginning so it was simple to pass a peeler, knife, and cutting board to Levi. He watched for a few moments to make sure that he wasn’t likely to cut off his own fingers. Levi seemed to move carefully after Eren showed him the sizes he wanted. He left the potatoes for Levi, they went in last so there wouldn’t be as much pressure to have them finished in time.

 

The timer went off after he had peeled two carrots; he hadn’t bothered to start cutting them yet. Habit governed his movements as the oven went off and the chicken came up onto the stove to rest for a while. He felt a little bad for taking up so much room in the kitchen, even though it was temporary and it meant that most of Hanji’s mess was confined to only one corner.

 

He felt like the chicken should rest for a little longer, but with Hanji spraying flour almost everywhere, it was probably a better idea to make sure that the chicken was carved and away from her mess. Although he would still have the problem of stopping the entire mess from getting into the filling pot as well. He’d worry about that when he started it though.

 

He carved the breasts little sloppily, although it seemed like no one minded. It seemed that every time he turned around while he was chopping, someone was sneaking a bit of meat. At that rate, Levi wouldn’t have any leftovers for lunches. He shooed them all off before he finished carving, although he did make sure that Levi got at least one of the oysters before he put the leftovers in the fridge.

 

“But Eren,” Hanji whined. “There’s just so much of it there!” He rolled his eyes with a slight smile.

“You’ve had plenty of it already,” he said.

“It’s so delicious though!” Petra added. Her puppy dog eyes almost swayed him, but no. The chicken had been made with the intention that Levi would actually stop spending money on lunch.

“No.” He let his face fall to a more neutral expression.

“Leftover chicken is for Levi’s lunches and there’s going to be more than enough of the pie for people to take home anyways. You’ll have larger portions then too.” He was relieved that Petra and Hanji seemed to drop the subject then.

 

Petra offered to cut the chicken breasts, for which he was most thankful for. He still had plenty of his own chopping left to do and that was one of the more annoying steps of this recipe. Multitasking and timing were important in cooking, or at least cooking and not taking five times as long as it could take.

 

This was one recipe he had a hard time to multitask.

“Let Hanji know she can actually dump flour in there,” he muttered. The two girls giggled as he made quick work of the carrots and chicken breast.

 

He glanced over at Levi, surprised that there’d been barely a word from the older man.

“It’s too bad you don’t have a slow cooker or a pressure cooker,” he commented. He hated leaving parts unused, but those items really made making stock much easier. “I’d show you how to boil down the bones into stock then. It’s simple enough, although a good soup is a little harder.” He still hadn’t managed to figure out his mom’s chicken soup for when they were sick. He couldn’t keep the small smile at the memory from his face. Leftover soup they had called it some times.[6] 

“Although you can always just toss leftovers into soup as well.”

 

“Maybe I’ll get one then and you can make soup for the salon,” Levi replied. Eren stared at him in shock for a few moments before Levi continued.“I’m sure people would be willing to pay for good chicken soup.”

 

Eren glanced at Levi’s hands, pausing in his own chopping. He had been talking and chopping at the same time but now he’d stopped. He looked at him quizzically for all of one moment where Hanji’s voice screeched across his soul. He didn’t feel horrible about jumping, especially when Levi had done the same to a lesser degree. No wonder Levi had stopped, he knew what would happen. Her continued tirade washed over him, barely penetrating as he tried to stop his ears from ringing.

“Would you do that Eren? It could be another day that Levi’s off and god knows he needs to learn how to cook anyways! You could give him lessons at the same time!” Hanji pleaded.

 

It took a while for him to actually hear her request, and another moment to process what she had been asking. He glanced over at Levi, he didn’t mind teaching, but only if he was interested. Today was more what was being done with the food and some basic tips, as well as learning to observe. Levi however, didn’t seem to be on board with the idea. At least that was the impression he had from his suddenly stiff posture.

 

“Only if he wants to learn,” he replied quietly. It seemed to be a good way to catch Hanji’s attention. He smiled slightly at Levi, he wouldn’t force him into anything he didn’t want to do. His father had tried it once, and Eren still couldn’t remember half of the knots that Mikasa remembered with such ease.

 

“But Eren–” He could hear the plea in Hanji’s voice and had to stop it there.

“There’s nothing worse than teaching someone that doesn’t want to learn.” If he was firm she would drop it, especially if there was a good reason. Teasing Levi about not being able to cook was one thing, forcing him to learn was another.

“I enjoy cooking, and that someone should know at least the basics, but I won’t force them beyond that,” he stated. He glanced back to Levi for a brief moment before focusing on Hanji again.

“I just thought Levi might be interested in helping with these things because they’re easily applied and it’s always nice to have helped make something you’re eating.” There was a quiet hum of thoughtfulness that went through the room. He gave an internal sigh of relief, he wasn’t sure what he would have done if Hanji had continued to press the matter.

 

The carrots were done quickly enough once they were all peeled. He started the broth mixture, the familiar quantity of butter, broth and flour getting dumped together. He stirred constantly, checking on Levi and Hanji now and then. Petra seemed to hover over them all as well and he caught her eye once and they shared a smile.

 

He caught Levi’s eye wandering over to him as he stirred the mixture. He couldn’t add the carrots or herbs until it was smooth. He expected for Levi to take longer, since he didn’t have as much practice. The problem was in how to word it properly to the other male. He pointed the spoon at the potatoes.

“You have a little more time, but I am going to need those. It’s practice that has me going faster so stop worrying about everything,” he instructed. Relief filled him as Levi grumbled something about ‘brats’ and started chopping again.

 

“Who taught you how to cook Eren?” Petra asked as she brought over the chicken, the board hovering over the pot slightly until he nodded towards the counter.

“The carrots go in first. I learnt from watching my mom mostly,” he replied wistfully. There wouldn’t be anymore knowledge from her anymore, except for the books she had left.  


 

Petra dumped in the carrots, careful to keep pieces from tumbling away. He started to add in the spices. He changed them from time to time, but kept to the simple bay, thyme and pepper this time.

 

“Just watching?” Hanji asked, turned slightly towards them. He nodded slightly as he checked the time before glancing over at Levi. He still had a fair number of potatoes to go through, and Eren wondered if he would mind if he taught him an easier way to cut.

“Levi, I’m going to shift your body to a better position okay?” He ignored the giggles of the girls in the corner.

 

He placed his hands on Levi’s hips gently, but let go quickly when he felt the man flinch away. He looked slightly guilty and held his hands up as he felt the full force of Levi’s glower. He probably hadn’t been paying attention again, but it was his fault for not waiting for an answer.

“I thought you heard me, I’m sorry. I wanted to show you a better posture and rhythm for cutting is all.” He tried to keep the guilty sound from his voice, that wouldn’t work out well at all.

“What about the filling?” Levi growled. Eren stared at him for a moment; he really hadn’t been paying too much attention.

“Just waiting on the potatoes. Plus I wasn’t paying too much attention to your form earlier,” Eren frowned. He had done a quick glance to make sure there wasn’t anything completely wrong, but there were enough little things that made it so much easier for Levi to actually hurt himself.

“It’s amazing you haven’t cut yourself yet,” he added, his heart racing a little. He really only wanted to help, but maybe he had gone too far.

 

“Fine, just don’t scare the shit out of me like that again,” Levi gave in. He heaved a huge inner sigh of relief, but if he flinched at a touch he should probably teach another way. He looked at Levi, perhaps he would be a good visual learner. There was only one way to really find out.

“Maybe it would be better if you observed for a bit?” he suggested. He accepted the knife that Levi offered him and made sure that Levi was watching. Which he wasn’t.

“Eyes here Levi,” he commanded. Their eyes met for a moment before Levi’s gaze dropped.

 

The first thing he noticed was that this knife was much duller than the one he used. No wonder that Levi had so much trouble cutting and was only half way through. He took a few moments at the beginning to exaggerate his movements. As he worked through he picked up speed. Initially he was only going to do a few of the potatoes, until he realised the knife was dull. He wasn’t about to hand back a dull knife since it was so much easier to cut your hand open with one. It would be enough to watch Levi cut just one of the larger potatoes.

 

Despite the dullness, the potatoes were done relatively fast, save the last one. He glanced at Levi and offered him the knife.

“Show me what you learned,” he suggested. Hanji and Petra suddenly stopped talking and he could see them watching. He wasn’t sure why they made such a huge deal out of all of this.

 

Levi had a rocky start, but he could see the small things that he was beginning to apply and he didn’t know if the man even realized his own increased speed. He smiled at Levi as he dumped the chicken and potatoes into the pot. He was happy and just a little bit proud of that accomplishment. Except that he couldn’t forget to let him know either.

“The knife was dull too by the way. You need to sharpen them.” He felt a little guilty as he saw Levi’s face and Petra and Hanji started to laugh.

“But you did learn something.” Something he’d be able to apply in many areas even.

He tried to distract himself from looking at Levi’s face by stirring the pot. He glanced at the oven temperature and quickly reset it to four hundred. Usually he was better than that. He glanced over at Levi for a moment at the sound of Levi’s voice almost growling.

“Yes, I learned that all my friends are pieces of shit and enjoy secrets too much.” He wasn’t quite sure of what to make of it for a moment, but a smile worked its way onto his face. It felt like he was seeing into his life for that brief moment and he was happen Levi was comfortable enough to share it with him.

* * *

 

Putting the pie together had been easy. Convincing Levi to let him help clean up had been much harder. He sulked slightly as he popped another pot sticker into his mouth. He had made a quick trip to the washroom to wash his hands and stay away from the cleaning frenzy, on Hanji’s orders.

“He’s like that all the time,” Petra offered, trying to cheer him up.

Eren sighed slightly.

“I normally clean as I go, but pot pie is–”

“A conglomeration of prep work,” Hanji interrupted. “Levi doesn’t get to help in the kitchen much, give him this at least eh?”

 

Eren stared at her for a moment, his jaw slackening as he realised something.

“You… You made that entire mess on purpose!” Her hand clapped over his mouth as he stared at her wide-eyed.

“Don’t let the little duck in there figure it out!” she hissed. Petra snorted, drawing both of their gazes.

“He probably already knows,” she stated with a shrug. Hanji looked slightly guilty as she removed her hand from Eren’s mouth.

“I did overdo it a bit this time though. I didn’t expect him to be that involved,” she whimpered.

“It’s not that bad though is it?” Eren asked, his brows furrowed. Petra gave him a small smile before explaining.

“Levi’s rather particular at what is and isn’t clean.” Hanji laughed and raised her voice to be heard in the kitchen.

“That’s not even all of it. You should see him when there isn’t any food out he _really_ goes all out cleaning then.” She leaned over so she could just barely see into the kitchen.

“You’re going to drip sweat all over your floor!” she commented. Eren found himself wondering how Hanji and Levi managed to become friends in the first place. It seemed like they just tried to annoy the shit out of each other.

“Ah… I spilled some of the melted caramels?” His attention swung back as he caught her voice. Caramel? She had spilt caramel on the counters? He groaned and placed his head in his hands.

“Hanji I’d need a knife to get caramel off of counters,” he groaned. Hanji sat back and glanced at him before looking back towards the kitchen.

“Oops.”

 

Eren glanced towards the kitchen, surprised to see Levi half in it now and half into the hallway. The look on his face was slightly frightening. It looked like a mixture of when Mikasa was threatening him as well as Armin’s plotting face. He wasn’t sure what he thought of the mixture, but it sent chills down his spine.

Petra’s voice helped snap him from that stupor.

“Face?” he asked. This was a normal face for him?

“The ‘I want to fucking kill Hanji right now’ face,” Levi answered. That explained the mixture of the two faces and the feeling of terror that crawled down his spine then. He didn’t expect to meet anyone else that could invoke that feeling in him.

 

“That’s a normal thing?” he managed to ask.

“She’s annoying enough that I may have actually given her a concussion before,” Levi grumbled. Eren felt his jaw drop. He had thought that Hanji would drive Levi crazy, but he had never imagined it being that bad.

“Don’t worry about it Eren! It’s more that I was running away from him and slipped on ice. He wouldn’t actually hurt me.” Hanji smiled slightly as she came back.

“Nothing’s stopping me from hurting you now,” Levi replied. Eren was almost baffled by the interaction of the two as Hanji snorted.

“You’ll want the food first and after dessert you’ll be too happy to actually try and kill me.”

Maybe they were good friends for a reason. A quick glance at Petra told him that this was in fact completely normal after all.

 

“Speaking of food,” Levi drawled. Eren’s eyes shot up as the timer blared. That was his call to action. He almost tripped over his chair as he rushed to get to the kitchen. He was infinitely grateful that they had gotten the oven gloves out early. He peered into the oven after flicking on the lights. The crust looked golden brown, it was ready. He grinned happily as he lifted out the heavy casserole dish carefully and placed it beside Hanji’s odd mixture, waiting to go into the oven.

“Hanji, did you need three fifty?” he asked. He hummed slightly as she shouted her reply and reset the temperature.

 

Now the hard part was always waiting before he served. It was usually easier to handle when the pan cooled a bit, as well as being easier to eat. He told the others to let it be, and reminded Petra of the white wine that was still in the fridge. He was looking forward to wine with the meal; he hadn’t had wine for a long time. Mostly because it was rather expensive for a student to buy regularly, but sometimes he wished more of his friends drank it so he had an excuse to pair foods with different wines.

 

He followed Levi’s orders to wash his hands, it would have happened again eventually anyways and just being thankful his hands hadn’t turned red yet.

“What do you think?” Petra murmured as they lathered their hands. He looked at her confused, think about what?

“Levi,” she clarified. He still wasn’t quite sure what she was asking.

“He’s different and interesting,” he said hesitantly. “I don’t really know him really.” She smiled slightly and nodded while handing him a paper towel to dry off his hands.

“You’d be surprised how many people judge him from their first interaction,” she commented and handed him four plates, utensils set on top.

“Well they’re losing out then,” he muttered as he went back to the living room, just barely catching a hint of Petra’s smile from the corner of his eyes.

 

It was easy enough to set the table, he had done it often enough as a child. He was slightly surprised that Levi wasn’t out yet, and he assumed Petra was making sure Hanji wasn’t burning anything as she put in her dessert.

 

He walked back into the kitchen to divide the pot pie. Sure enough, Hanji was putting her mixture in the oven and Petra almost zoomed out with wine glasses as soon as he came in. He frowned slightly, wondering what the two of them had been talking about.

“What do you think Eren, half an hour?” Hanji asked. He stared at her, horror filling his entire body for a moment as he wondered just how much of a terror she was in the kitchen; before her face broke into a wide grin.

“You should have seen your face!” she cackled. “Good knives are in that drawer by the way, or you can use one of the ones that Levi washed.

 

He opted for one of the freshly cleaned knives before sliding the oven glove onto his left hand. The pie was divided into eight, fairly large, pieces.

“Is it what you expected?” He frowned at Hanji. There had to be some reason that they were both asking him similar questions, and it was starting to get a little annoying. Levi’s question distracted him from replying. Movie? He frowned for a moment, his mind trying to answer Hanji’s question but also trying to make sure he answered Levi’s question about what he didn’t like to watch. Mikasa’s gushy dramas came to mind, and all the pining romances he had to listen to if they were watching something together as he yelled back.

“Romance.” He stared at Hanji when she burst into giggles and just waved him off. He stared at her in confusion for a moment before grabbing a spatula and donning the other oven mitt to take out the pot pie.

 

He almost groaned when the familiar pop music played as he came out of the kitchen. That was why Hanji had been laughing. He would have to remember that Levi was the type of person to be this much of an asshole.

“I said no romance and you put on Music & Lyrics?” he asked. It was a good movie, probably the only romantic comedy he ever found bearable. At the same time Levi was a bit of an ass for putting that on when he said he didn’t like romance. That and Levi looked entirely too smug at how this had gone.

“It’s a good movie,” Levi stated. Eren held back from the childish desire to roll his eyes as he placed the pie on the trivets.

“I know I’m just astounded you would purposefully do that.” What if he had said thrillers or something? He shuddered slightly at the thought.

“Levi does that to everyone.” He glanced at Petra. It was still a horrible thing to do. He listened to both Hanji and Petra, forced into watching Dr. Horrible and Corpse Bride respectively. It seemed that Levi at least had good taste in movies.

 

His eyes followed Levi into the kitchen, wondering what he was doing until he heard the running water. He hesitated for a moment over a chair.

“Do you um, say anything before eating?” he asked. The last family he had asked if they said prayer and he’d gotten the strangest looks for the rest of the evening. He was only slightly relieved when they shook their heads.

“Only on his birthday,” Hanji laughed. He found himself wondering just why that would be the one occasion. Levi wasn’t that religious or they’d be saying something over the meal now. It also suggested they didn’t normally say anything for anyone else’s birthday.

“His birthday’s on Christmas and we have a large potluck with all our friends then,” Petra explained. She suggested they eat and everything became a blur of movement as they all sat down and there was a fight over the spatula. Eventually after Petra almost dropped her entire piece onto the table, Eren snatched it away from Levi and carefully doled out a portion to everyone.

 

It was oddly comfortable eating with them all, with just the quiet background music of the movie. There wasn’t much conversation, but he took it as a good thing and tried to fight down a blush when Levi complimented him. He tipped his glass to Petra as well. The wine really did pair well, and he’d have to make sure to talk to her in the future. He always had some trouble in pairing the correct wines with food and it seemed she was quite good at it.

 

The one compliment he didn’t expect to receive though, was Hanji ruffling his hair. The slight touch of alcohol made him just the tiniest bit more sensitive, but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t sure how to get her to stop politely, until Levi showed that there was no polite way to get her to stop. He was so relieved and thankful, except that he now had a ‘fun’ problem to hide. He would have to remember in the future to not sit next to Hanji, or maybe in any proximity to her.

 

Her constant presence on his head didn’t help much, any little shift made his scalp tingle and he stared at his plate, willing his body’s excitement to go down. He never thought that he would be so thankful for Levi overhearing that conversation until now. He barely paid attention to their argument, trying to focus his attention anywhere _but_ his body or anywhere in the vicinity.

 

Hanji’s face in front of his own caught him off guard and he had to mentally backtrack to try and think of what Levi had said. Something about eccentric and telling her to fuck off. He glanced slightly to the side and knew he looked guilty. He could barely see her face shift to a pout before her weight left his head.

 

Now that she wasn’t on him, the absence made the problem temporarily worse. He didn’t know that could happen. Perhaps he should actually tell her so that she wouldn’t feel so bad about his reaction, and thus Levi’s reaction to the entire scenario. It would also keep her off his head in the future. He hoped.

 

He half heard Levi’s offer and shook his head. He didn’t trust himself to move at the moment, beyond shifting his body so that he wasn’t so uncomfortable.

“I’ll be fine in a moment, it wasn’t that long,” he muttered. The sudden absence was what made it so bad for now. He hoped that he would be fine in a moment at least. “Thanks for stopping her.”

“You have to be firm with Hanji. If you tell her not to fucking touch you and mean it she won’t. If you slam her against a wall pissed off at her she even won’t ever do it again,” Levi offered.

Eren blinked, surprised at the oddly specific example.

“What did she do?” he asked. His eyes darted up for a moment. His breath caught when he met Levi’s eyes. He hadn’t quite realised how stunning Levi’s eyes were. It felt like he was looking at an ice rink, with snow falling down and his blades were the first to cut through the new ice. He looked back down quickly, filing that thought to fully process later, maybe when his body calmed down and he wasn’t going to misinterpret the thought.

 

“Ordered hookers for me on New Year’s.” Levi interrupted his thought. “To ‘get the stick out of my ass’ according to her.” He grimaced at the thought. Wait, did he hear that right? Hookers as in multiples? How was Hanji still alive?

“Hookers? Multiple ones?” he asked. He felt his jaw drop again slightly as Levi answered.

“She wasn’t sure of my tastes back then.”

“Back then?” Shit, he didn’t mean to say that and he also didn’t mean for it to come out sounding so _high_. He sounded like a little kid dammit! He was only half thankful for Hanji coming back, and then less so when she continued the conversation.

“He likes them full of fire and able to put up with his shitty personality. He only finds people that are one of the two though,” she commented. He wanted to crawl into a corner and hide, but she had also just placed dessert on the table with a warning not to touch it.

 

It looked like brownies, so he wondered why she needed a knife when Levi’s shout snapped across his ears and he flinched slightly. She toned him down quickly enough, and as she began to cut he thought he understood why she needed to get a better knife. Something was crunching as she cut. He glanced at her.

“Why is it crunching?” he asked. He wasn’t sure how overcooking, as Hanji claimed, would result in a crunching noise. The edges of the brownies weren’t black so it wasn’t like they were charcoal.

“It’s cookie Eren.” Levi’s explanation made more sense, but he still hadn’t made sense of the dessert itself. They looked like brownies, so how was there cookie inside it?

“They’re slutty brownies,” Levi continued. He assumed that was the name of the recipe, or at least what Hanji called them.

 

“Probably the only sluts Levi will ever have,” Hanji added. Eren felt slightly irritated at her comment, and a little embarrassed to hear them talking about their private lives like that, until he met Levi’s eyes. The icy calm in them calmed him down slightly, yet he could feel his skin heat up even more.

“You’re just upset because the only thing I did with those hookers was watch movies,” Levi finished, glancing at Hanji. Eren meant to laugh, he did. It seemed like the type of thing that would drive Hanji nuts, with the little he knew of the two. What ended up coming out of his mouth seemed more like a mixture of a groan and a laugh.

 

Levi’s comment only made it worse and he thought he was going to die of second hand embarrassment before the night was over. Especially calling him a cookie, the last time he had been called that was when Jean had dumped a tray of cookies over him in school. At least he seemed amply distracted now, his problem deflating for the most part. Hanji seemed to be amused at least.

 

He gave Petra a quick glance when she poked out of the kitchen, it seemed like she had been cleaning, going by the rubber gloves.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “Hanji was being oddly quiet so I was worried you had killed her.”

“I think he might have if she doesn’t breathe soon,” he mumbled. He didn’t realize someone could laugh that quietly and be laughing so hard. Petra looked confused for a moment before glancing at Hanji.

“Well try and get her to stop so I can finish doing most of the dishes. I want to get all the sharps done at least.” He nodded, that made sense. Then all the sharp items would be in stable places to dry compared to the dishes. He didn’t expect Levi to slam her on the back, although he should have guessed some drastic action when he had grabbed the knife. He shifted slightly, a little embarrassed that he had jumped a little at the action. At this rate his face would be stained red for the rest of the night.

 

He glanced back up when Levi explained himself. How he had to be a different person for work than at home, and Eren could understand. Customer service would be a big aspect in the salon and this part of Levi wouldn’t fit within that expectation. He shook his head slightly and smiled. At least he knew for sure why Levi felt so off before now as well.

“No I just wasn’t prepared for the combination. You and Hanji should have a stand-up routine,” Eren suggested. At least then he’d be prepared mentally for them all acting like his friends with the frank comments. He liked seeing them all together, and Levi actually relaxing.

“It’s nice seeing you like you,” he added.

 

The crunching of the brownies began to fill the air again and he met Hanji’s eyes. Hanji’s questions about what he meant threw him a little off. Did she mean the stand-up routine comment or seeing Levi acting more like himself? He looked thoughtful for a few moments, before deciding to answer the latter question.

“At Starbucks he was kind of, here but not here?” He spread his hands out helplessly. He wasn’t sure how else to explain it, but Armin would probably have the right word for it. It was different from the first time he met him. He could feel his face cool as he fumbled for a more proper wording.

“The first time he was mostly there but still not completely, I just… didn’t think it was a completely different persona.” _That_ was the word. No wonder he thought of Armin, the roleplay lover.

“Persona?” Levi’s question snapped his attention back and he nodded, but Hanji answered first, describing it as a mask he donned. Mask, that was another good way to describe how it was, but he didn’t know why she looked so disappointed. He thought he imagined it, since a blink later she was smiling and going to get Petra and the dessert utensils.

 

The sudden lack of energy made him realise just how off he was making everything. It seemed like that’s what always happened with him when Levi was around.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out. Levi’s confusion confused him a little. About what? He wasn’t even sure how to word it, when it was just so much.

“Everything?” he buried his face in his hands so he wouldn’t have to look at those perfect wintery eyes anymore.

“Misunderstanding? Being an ass when you helped me out? I don’t know,” he couldn’t keep the desperation from his voice. All that he had even done to try and make up for it was make one lousy meal.

“You don’t have to apologize for anything other than making me cook,” Levi’s voice cut through his rambling mind. Making him cook, that was right he had mentioned quizzing Levi. His lips drew up slightly and he glanced back up.

 

“That’s right, I haven’t quizzed you yet,” he rumbled. It wouldn’t be fair though if Levi didn’t get anything from this as well though. Maybe they could at least learn more about each other from this.

“But in all fairness, for every question you get right you can ask something.” He only hoped he wouldn’t be stuck in a perpetual state of embarrassment in the process. Levi seemed interested in the offer.

“Ask something?” Levi asked. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face now.

“Ask me a question, ask me to do something,” Eren clarified. He snapped his mouth shut before it ran away with him even more. He let out a slightly breath when Levi agreed. He glanced at Levi, mentally cursing for a brief millisecond as their eyes met again.

 

There was something more in them now, beyond the ice and snow that reminded him of the intimacy hot chocolate gave after skating. Then Hanji sauntered back in. His eyes flicked over to her as she spoke before he glanced back at Levi. The magic in the moment was gone now.

 

He searched his mind for a question, something to draw his attention away from that weird connection they just had.

“What temperature was the oven set to?” he asked. He glanced at Hanji, scowling a little in warning when she clapped. He hoped she wasn’t giving him the answers. He kept his eyes on Levi, catching bare glimpses of the brownies as he waited for an answer. He let him take his time, it meant he was trying to remember at least. He frowned slightly when Levi jolted a little and glanced at Hanji, but her face didn’t shift as she finished setting a brownie on each plate and sat down to watch.

 

“Four hundred.” His attention snapped back as Levi answered. He grinned, it seemed like Levi had been paying more attention than he thought. He finally took in the brownie on his plate and couldn’t stop his smile from widening. No wonder it had crunched. The brownies were set on top of what looked like oreo cookies and then an actual chocolate chip cookie.

“It looks delicious Hanji,” he complimented. He could feel the saliva beginning to build up as the chocolate smell wafted through the air.

He was a little surprised when she told him to wait and try it before saying that. It wouldn’t be worse than it looked surely?

 

He watched as Levi took the first bite of his brownie and his face seemed to melt into one of bliss. Hanji had mentioned earlier that it was one of the few sweet things that Levi liked, so there must be something special about it. He took a forkful, ending up with a bit more than he expected. That was just how the cookie crumbled unfortunately.

 

The chocolate melted on his tongue, the richness offset by the cookie and the creaminess of the oreo. He realised a moment too late that he was moaning with the brownie still on his tongue. Levi just had to see it as well and comment on his ‘disgusting behaviour’. He blushed slightly as he shut his mouth and chewed as he met Levi’s eyes again. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen Levi looking so relaxed.

 

“Holy fuck can you not make that face?” Levi’s request was almost like a breath of air. Eren blinked, startled. Face? He swallowed and gave his ‘fuck you Jean’ face.

“What face?” he asked sweetly. After all of Hanji and Levi’s banter he was actually more prepared for Levi’s answer.

“The ‘I just had fucking fantastic sex for the first time’ face.” He tried to stop himself from laughing, but couldn’t do anything about his smile widening. He and Jean had this particular argument once already in high school.

“Is that a face you’re familiar with then?” he asked. He held back a laugh at Levi’s face. All the teasing before was worth it if it meant seeing Levi taken that off guard.

“I guess not then,” he added, humming slightly as he took another bite of the brownie. Hanji’ laughter evolved from silent to almost banging the table with raucous laughter.

 

He glanced at Petra, seeing the smallest hint of a smile hiding behind her hand.

“Levi has particular tastes,” she added, amusement colouring her voice. He didn’t expect to hear the exact same thing as he heard earlier in the night from Hanji.

The clatter of cutlery suggested that Levi hadn’t expected that either. Levi looked shocked with a touch of betrayal, and Eren figured it might be a good time to switch the topic with another question. Something that he should know for sure.

“What solids go into the pot stickers?” he asked. He held back a grin at Levi’s sure answer.

“Two for you now.” He would have to remember that count later. “Do you remember the liquids?” Levi’s glare could almost set him on fire. He didn’t bother to hide his small smile at that. He wasn’t surprised Levi didn’t remember all of them, given he rattled them off once and quickly at that.

 

He shrugged slightly, he was impressed that he had remembered at least a part of it.

“I’ll just have to make them all with you next time then.” The words were out of his mouth before he could filter them. He didn’t know if there would be a next time, if Levi would even feel comfortable enough for there to be a next time.

“If it’s okay that is,” he added quietly. He glanced off to the side, he didn’t know if he wanted to watch Levi as he made his choice. It had been fun talking to someone outside of school for once. Even if they were just as crazy as all of his friends. Levi’s answer drew his attention

“Of course,” Levi answered. Eren’s heart jumped into his mouth and he couldn’t keep the smile from his face. He could come back, he could cook again. Some how, it felt like the world was realigning itself for this moment and everything just felt _right._


	4. Burns and Parties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren returns to his dorm with an over excited Hanji and regrets the fact that there's a party the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo I'm shit for saying there might be more chapters in a month, so the most I'll say about updates from now on is how far along I am if people ask. Maybe then I'll stop jinxing myself -laughs-. Hope you enjoy!

Eren sent a quick text to Armin as Hanji shepherded him to her car. His protests and insistence that he was perfectly capable of walking was getting her off his back. She had insisted on driving him home until he caved in and had somehow convinced him to text Armin, who had only sided with her. Well, sided with her to the point of ‘if you aren’t home in ten minutes I’m calling the police to look for the body.’

 

Hanji had had a laugh at that, which he was now transcribing to Armin.

 

 ** _Eren_** _10:13pm: She’s laughing Armin. You aren’t helping me much._

He didn’t have to wait too long for a reply and scowled down at the phone as he opened the reply.

 ** _Armin_** _10:13pm: Wasn’t trying to. Call me curious or maybe I’m expanding my social horizon._ Eren raised an eyebrow at his phone, just slightly aware of Hanji’s curious look.

**_Eren_ ** _10:13pm: Are you asking what I think you’re asking?_

**_Armin_ ** _10:14pm: Yes._

He scowled and glanced up at Hanji, half jumping back when her face was almost over his phone.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you reading other people’s texts is rude?” he snapped, trying to slow his heartbeat. She grinned up at him before leaving his personal bubble.

 

“What was he asking?” she asked. Eren pocketed his phone after sending one last text and scowled at the floor.

“He was asking to meet you,” he answered. Her squeal made him jump again and he briefly wondered if this was a regular occurrence; and if it was, if he’d ever get used to it.

“Do you mind?” she asked, looking up at him with water-filled eyes. Her begging creeped him out slightly, mostly due to its effectiveness. The only thing that looked more pitiful was small animals begging.

 

He sighed, his instincts were telling him to run as fast and far away from Hanji as possible while he could still escape, however he also wanted to see his friend happy again. It was the least he could do for Armin after all his help.

“Not really,” he grumbled. He stopped when he realised that she had stopped partway in the hallway. He glanced back and froze as their eyes met. He hadn’t expected the shift in expression. Her smile that had been on all night had fallen, leaving him feeling like she was a hitwoman or something with the severity of her expression.

“I mean it Eren,” she insisted. “I don’t want to impose on you and your friends at all.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and glanced away.

“I really don’t mind,” he muttered. He ran his hand through his hair, trying to figure out how to explain what he was really feeling about her visiting. It didn’t seem like she needed a further explanation though as she bounded past him to mash the elevator button, smile back in full force.

 

He sighed, traipsing behind her. How did Levi manage to put up with all of her energy?

“Are you always like this?” he asked.

 

She glanced at him as the doors pinged open.

“Like what?” she asked quizzically.

 

He stared at her, horror slowly seeping into his being. He looked forward and shifted his bag slightly.

“Never mind. Where is your car anyways?” he asked.

 

“Oh! It’s down by the salon, there’s a small area for employee parking there, since so many of us live further out anyways.”

 

The walk went by so much faster this time; Hanji seemed to be done grilling him for answers for the night and they both knew where they were going. They had reached her car before she asked another question, one that was probably the most important she had asked so far.

“So, does your dorm have a parking lot or will we have to cross part of the campus?” she asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.

“Uh.” The question actually caught him off guard for a few moments while he mentally pictured his dorm again.

“There’s parking just in front of it. You have to go around the campus though.”

Hanji nodded as she brought the engine to life.

“You’re in the Smithy then,” she commented. Eren blinked, he was well aware of the nickname for his dorm, but that she knew the name as well suggested that—

“Yes, you can say that I went there. Lived in the Smithy for about a year actually,” Hanji interrupted his thoughts. He glanced sideways at her.

“Really?” She didn’t seem like the type, far too fleeting of thought to be in the Smithy.

 

The actual name of the residence was Smith, but there was a tendency for all the high performing students to be roomed there. There was more than one weekend where there was screaming on the floor when someone lost all their work on a project. Their energy usually burned brighter, but they were more liable to break as well, earning the nickname of a smithy.

 

“Surprised?” she asked. He smiled weakly.

“A little?” he replied. “Were you an odd one out or?”

She laughed. “No, I was waist deep in the fire. Glad to be out of there now though. I think my old roommates are even happier though.”

“What did you study?” he asked. He caught a glimpse of her eyes before they darted back to the road.

“I lived in Smith while I was finishing my masters in genetic engineering.”

 

Eren’s eyes went wide, and his words got stuck in his mouth.

“I know, big surprise right?” she laughed, but it sounded different from when she was laughing in Levi’s apartment. He couldn’t tear his eyes off of her.

“Why?” he forced out. She remained silent as they pulled into the parking lot and Eren started to wonder if he should have just kept his mouth shut.

“It wasn’t for me.” Her voice startled him while she turned off the car. He wanted to ask more, but her downcast tone had him change the subject instead.

 

“I might have to sign you in,” he mumbled. He looked over to see a small smile on her face. The expression didn’t quite fit his image of her, since he had only seen her jubilant and hyper. The brief expression of relief faded quickly back into, what he was beginning to assume was, her default expression.

“Let’s go and see Armin!” she cried. Eren paused, wondering how she had known his name before shaking his head. Texts, she had read his name off his texts.

“Yeah, hold up a sec.” He fumbled slightly as he waved his card and signed her in.

“Now I remember why I hated dorms,” she commented. “It’s sooo much nicer having my own place.”

 

He smiled slightly; there were definitely perks to living in dorm, especially the Smith dorm. He still enjoyed going home now and then though. It was nicer here with friends than at home alone and commuting at unholy hours in the morning.

“It’s nice having a proper kitchen too,” he commented with a small smile. “I’m in 114, Armin’s across the hall.”

 

They both stared for a moment as a string of students filed out, their voices resounding through the walls.

“I guess someone had a party,” he mumbled as they drew up to to 113 and he knocked.

 

Eren froze when Armin opened the door. Something had happened in the few minutes since they had talked. Armin was stiff and there were faint traces of red around his eyes.

“Uh, hey Armin this is Hanji—”

“Well Zoe Hanji, but if you call me Zoe I’ll put your head through a door!” she chirruped and thrust a hand out towards Armin. He looked wide eyed at Eren before he gingerly took Hanji’s hand, managing a small smile.

“Armin Arlert, I’m Eren’s general advisor and last minute saviour.”

“So you’re the meister of the floor then,” Hanji cackled. Eren and Armin looked at her, eyebrows drawn together and mouths opened to ask a question.

“There’s always at least one person on each floor people tend to go to for help and I’m getting that vibe from you Armin!” She slung an arm around Armin’s shoulders and steered them into the room.

 

Eren shrugged as he met Armin’s wild eyes and closed the door as he stepped in.

“OH! Economics? I miss economics!” Hanji fluttered around the pieces of paper set out on the table.

“It’s more for fun than anything,” Armin muttered, desperately trying to extract himself from Hanji’s grasp and looked desperately over at Eren.

“I tried to warn you,” Eren shrugged.

“Warn him? Warn him about what?” Hanji’s bemused stare met his own and his lips locked.

“You coming over,” Armin muttered, pink dusted across his face. Hanji’s jaw slackened slightly and laughter resounded through the room.

 

“Is that all?” she wheezed. “God, Levi would have had a chair against the door and jammed his lock to try and keep me away.”

Armin ducked his head to hide a full smile. Eren felt a bout of relief, maybe it was a good thing to have Hanji over after all.

 

“ _Armiiiiin!_ Is Eren back yet? I really don’t get that bit about telomeres and aging!” The pounding resounded on Armin’s door and the two burst out laughing as Hanji looked confused.

“Eren’s the meister of this floor for the sciences Hanji.” Eren wished he had a camera, he was fairly certain that both Levi and Jean would have killed to see the look on her face at that moment.

“ _Armin!_ ”

 

Eren yanked open the door, letting Connie fall in.

“Oh, hey Eren. I didn’t realise you guys were having…” Connie trailed off as he saw Hanji.

“Who’s this?”

“Jean’s boss,” Armin replied, letting his head rest in his hands.

“Zoe Hanji, but call me Zoe and—”

“Your head will go through the door,”  Eren and Armin finished and shared a small grin between them.

 

Connie glanced between the two of them.

“Are you guys having a moment and I should leave?” he asked

Eren rubbed his forehead.

“No Connie, we aren’t having a moment and don’t bother pretending, Armin figured it out months ago.”

Connie flopped into one of the chairs at the table.

“Thank god, how would I manage to fool the guy that’s putting us all through statistics?” he moaned.

 

“Wait, what?” Hanji asked, looking between them all.

“Bet on my love life,” Armin answered sharply. Hanji stared for a moment and her jaw slackened.

“Jean?” she asked.

“ _What?_ ” three voices chorused in horror.

“Oh come on, Eren practically _screamed_ earlier, denying any relationship with Jean with the same horrified look he has now.” She glanced around at the three of them.

“What’s the betting pool anyways?” Hanji asked.

“Uh, last Mikasa counted it was somewhere in the 200 range?” Connie scratched at his scalp.

“ _What?_ ” Eren and Armin chorused. Connie stared back at them.

“Well Sasha found out, then she was a blabbermouth to Annie so by extension—”

“I get it,” Eren groaned.

“He still doesn’t know does he?” Armin asked quietly. Eren glanced at him, the red around Armin’s eyes seemed even more pronounced than earlier.

 

“I’m going to get some of that green tea from my room,” Eren muttered. “Connie, start the kettle please.”

“Yeah sure, so long as you help me with some of that biology shit.”

“Telomeres are just repeating strands of DNA that don’t code for anything particular and are snipped slowly through mitosis, I don’t see what’s so hard,” he muttered as he slid through the door past more screaming students.

 

Hopefully Connie and Hanji would be able to hold Armin together while he got the tea steeping. He rushed back over with the can of leaves, dodging into the kitchen. Armin didn’t like him around much during most of his breakdowns, hell if he knew why. The motions of making tea were almost automatic.

“Happen a lot?” Hanji asked over his shoulder.

 

He screeched as the water spilled over his hand, instead of into the tea pot.

“Oh shit! Eren!”

His hand was under cold water before he knew what was happening.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry. Shit, shit.”

“Hanji, just pour the water into the pot please,” Eren said firmly as he grit his teeth against the pain. The slightly cold water helped a lot. He glanced up at Armin and Connie staring at him, eyes wide.

“I know how to treat a burn Hanji, please give me some space and pour the tea. Connie, I have a first aid kit under my sink. Keys are in my back pocket.” Connie practically fled the apartment with Eren’s keys while Armin hung back and Hanji seemed to be contemplating something.

 

Connie was practically stumbling over his feet thrusting the bag onto the counter.

“What do you need?” Connie gasped, his eyes flitting quickly between Eren’s hands and the kit. Eren rolled his eyes slightly and gave a reassuring smile.

“I need you to calm down Connie. The kit’s more for after the sting, okay?”

“It looks better than that time you were an idiot,” Armin offered, leaning over to squint at Eren’s hands. A faint pink was starting to spread across them.

“We’ll find out tonight probably, but I have a lot of burn ointment. Did you really have to mention that Arm’?” Eren asked.

“This sounds like a juicy story.” Hanji grinned as she leaned on the counter. “Idiot? Do tell?”

 

Eren could feel the pink revisit his cheeks, he had thought that the embarrassing parts of his night were over, but it seemed not. Armin took charge of the story, he really had been a stupid idiot, making a recipe for the first time and unable to find the oven mitts. He had used pot holders for the moment, terrified that the lasagna was going to burn and had made the huge mistake of lifting up before pulling out. He probably still had the scar, but he hadn’t bothered to really notice lately.

 

Thankfully, Hanji was containing her laughter at his plight, but it didn’t keep the wicked grin from her face.

“So Levi isn’t the only one to do stupid shit in the kitchen,” she drawled.

“We learn from our stupid mistakes in the kitchen,” Eren muttered. Connie burst out laughing and the smallest smile crossed Armin’s face.

“You said the same shit to Jean when you were teaching him!” Connie roared as he slapped his leg.

“Well my mom gave the same advice to me,” he muttered. His chest tightened slightly.

“Do you need another set of hands?” Armin asked quietly. “That aren’t as shaky as Connie’s at least.”

 

Eren barely heard Connie’s protests and smiled weakly at Armin and nodded, barely glimpsing Hanji’s thoughtful look as she poured the tea. Between the two of them his hands were carefully dried and half covered in aloe vera.

“Where did Hanji and Connie go?” Eren asked as he finally looked around the kitchen again.

“They brought the tea out, try not to drop it on your hands this time.” Armin smiled slightly before he bit his lip and looked down at his shoes. “I’m sorry, for all of this. If I—”

“Armin, you deal with my shit, you really don’t have to worry about how you act.” Eren gave him a lopsided smile. “If anything it makes you a bit more human, you encyclopedia.”

“No, that’s not it Eren.”

“Armin, really. I get it.”

“No, you don’t! I—”

“Tea’s getting cold boys!” Hanji called. Armin sighed and turned towards the small dining table.

 

“Why did you bring her back,” Armin grumbled.

“I dunno,” Eren replied airily. “My best friend wanted to make some new friends and ignored my few attempts to dissuade him.”

“You didn’t say she was half crazy,” Armin accused.

“I didn’t think she was like that all the time,” Eren admitted. “I only really met her today too.” He was curious about her significant other now, the one that could ‘rein her in’.

“It takes practice,” Hanji commented with a sly grin on her face. “Dealing with me that is. Or adapting to my quirks at least.”

 

Armin’s face twisted slightly as he realised they hadn’t been quite as quiet as he thought. Connie was staring at them wide-eyed, his hands still shaking and the paper in front of him was crinkled around the edges. Eren sighed slightly and sat by Connie, staring at the paper in front of him.

“What is it?” he asked, exhaustion seeping into his voice. He had forgotten how draining pain could be.

“Practice problems due tomorrow in tutorial. Or at least my TA says that she’s going to be quizzing us tomorrow.”

“Tough luck there Connie, you got one of the lazy tutorials?” Eren asked as he skimmed the questions. Usually the lazier tutorials got quizzed more to make sure they were paying attention. Connie groaned as he sprawled over the table.

“Connie, this is the sheet for next week,” Eren pointed out.

“ _What?_ ”

 

Hanji hid a smile behind her hand, Armin wasn’t nearly as polite and was snickering, glancing at the upside down sheet.

“Date’s in bold dude. I don’t know how you missed that.” Eren pushed the paper back. “I can still help you with it, but it isn’t as immediate of a problem.”

“No.” Connie’s head banged against the desk. “It’s cool then. No wonder why half the questions were so hard. How did you know that shit off the top of your head?”

Eren shrugged slightly.

“The basics of it were in grade 12 bio as well. I delved a little more into some of it and just know a little more. The class is more for all the engineers that didn’t take the biology class in high school.”

“Like me, dammit.” Connie ran a hand over his shaved head and blew out forcefully.

“Well at least you cut all my stress for the night now. I’ll see your smart pants later then!” Eren and Armin both gave a half wave as Connie sauntered out the door. Eren wincing slightly as his hand banged against the table.

 

“Why do you complain about my insanity?” Hanji asked, wiggling her eyebrows. Eren caught only a glimpse of Armin’s astounded look as his focus shifted to the sudden flaring pain up his arm. He forced himself to pick up the tea mug and take a small sip. He needed to forget about what he had done to his hands so that they wouldn’t hurt so much.

“You don’t have any labs or anything in the next week do you Eren?” Hanji asked, staring at his hands. He glanced up at her, catching a brief glimpse of concern in her eyes before staring back at his tea and shrugging.

“I’ll just pair up with Connie or his roommate and get them to do all the minute work. If you say sorry one more time you aren’t coming back here.” He raised an eyebrow defiantly and watched, somewhat amused, as her mouth open and closed before she lifted her hands in defeat with a smile on her face.

 

“I’ve probably done enough damage to you today at least. OH! Wait! Phone. Phone number.” She patted her pockets for a moment before frantically typing into it and shoving the phone at Armin. He stared at them both, baffled for a few moments until his brain caught up and his pocket buzzed.

“Don’t enter me until tomorrow when your hands don’t hurt! I want a status update!” She paused for a moment before she tapped in more characters.

“You too Armin, this one might be too wily for just one reference.” She cackled as Armin grinned and typed in his own number before handing the phone back.

“It was a… learning experience having you here Hanji,” he offered. He stood, before sitting back down as Hanji waved him back down before laughing madly and shutting the door.

 

Eren and Armin shared a moment to enjoy the silence, as much silence as a partying dorm could get.

“She’s…” Armin tried before trailing off.

“I know,” Eren whispered, sprawling over the table. “I know.” He peeked up to look at Armin; he looked a little calmer now than when he first opened the door.

“We cool again?” he asked. Armin covered his mouth, but Eren could hear the laughter and couldn’t stop the small smile from crossing his face.

“I think you scalding your hands like that made everything okay.” Armin’s hand dropped and he grabbed one of Eren’s hands, looking at it every which way. “Another round of cold water and aloe before bed? Do you still have some pain killers? You might want to take some before sleeping. I don’t think we’ll be able to play or work much when we should be giving your body a head start to heal. Especially with that party Jean’s trying to plan.” Armin took on a mischievous face.

 

Eren’s eyes widened slightly, before relaxing.

“Okay, yeah let’s do that. If you hear screams across the hall in the night though, you’ll know what it is.”

Armin nodded.

“That’ll be you forgetting about the burns in the morning and scraping at your hands with that rough soap. Actually…” Armin glanced over at the small pull out couch, his teeth worrying at his lip.

“What is it Armin?” Eren asked, concerned.

“Maybe you can stay here for tonight. My soap should be fine and just the difference—”

“Waking up to a different area will jog my memory faster,” Eren slowly finished. He sat up properly, drawing his hands back in carefully.

 

“Are… are you sure you’re okay with me being here Armin?” he asked. He still wasn’t sure why Armin had his off times with him, well he could understand why anyone would need off time from someone’s presence but with Armin it felt like it was more than just too much time together.

 

Armin’s smile was borderline angelic. He knew guys and girls that had fallen to that smile, and thankfully he’d built up some resistance to it over the years. Jean turned into goo whenever he saw it though, how the two weren’t together yet, he didn’t know.

“Eren, its fine. I’d rather not wake up to your screams in the morning. I’ll get the couch ready then while you take care of your hands. We can gossip about the boys we like until morning then.” Eren felt a chill down his spine as he caught the barest glimpse of Armin’s eyes and he stood and turned. “I hear you might have lit a flame with a certain hair stylist.”

 

He stared for a moment before mechanically moving to the sink. He had a feeling he had just signed up for a much longer night than he had thought.

 

 

It had to be his room. Not only that, but they had to invite Jean. Sure, Eren had already known the shitface was coming. Yes he had consented to the party being in his room and even expected to take care of all his drunken friends and their bottles of booze. What he hadn’t signed up for was—

“I’VE GOT YOU ARMIN!” A pop scattered another meter of streamers and a handful of confetti on the floor. He closed his eyes and managed to count to five before Mikasa, of all people, put one of the party poppers into his hand.

“Relax,” she ordered and forced him to pull the trigger. The room burst out laughing, probably because of how his face looked at the time.

 

He sighed and lifted his beer up with a smile. It was worth it for the chaotic night and morning hangovers.

“Why Saturday?” Mikasa asked quietly.

“We didn’t want to be exhausted from the drive,” Reiner boomed, laughing as Annie elbowed him. Bertholdt stammered some apology or other that Mikasa and Eren waved off in sync.

 

“Hey what the hell happened to your hands anyways?” Jean sauntered over with some purple coloured drink in his hand. Connie had started to mix people drinks while Sasha was staring fixedly at the deep fryer she had brought.

“We were kinda expecting you to keep Munchies over there from making too much of a disaster like the first time,” Jean finished.

Eren grimaced and glanced down at the aloe sodden bandages.

“Hanji happened.”

Jean grimaced and took a long gulp of his drink.

“What on earth-” he started.

“Armin asked,” Eren cut him off. He was all too aware of how much of a bad idea it would have been and he wasn’t going to put up with Jean’s crap tonight. In the morning maybe, but he was still feeling edgy with the almost constant throbbing of his hands.

 

“Should you be drinking?” Bertholdt asked. He fidgeted as the five of them fixed their gaze on him.

“I-I mean.” He looked down at his shoes. “It dilutes the blood right?”

Eren gave a small shrug.

“If I don’t have at least one drink everyone will complain. Jean will complain just to be an asshole like always anyways. My hands are just a good excuse anyways; I need to make sure none of the idiots chokes on vomit tonight.” He gave a pointed glance at Connie and Jean.

 

“Isn’t it ready yet?” Sasha whined, wringing her hands and staring beseechingly at Eren. He glanced over at Armin, who was dusting some of the fish with a light herb mix before they put it into the batter.

“Try a small bit,” he suggested.

 

Everyone in the room cringed at Sasha’s sudden shriek. Connie dropped his tumbler, spilling a drink all over the tile.

“Oh no! Was that my martini?” she sobbed, clinging to Connie. He laughed and shoved at her lightly.

“Come on Sash, it wasn’t a glass at least. Get some paper towel and clean it up while I make you another.”

 

Eren couldn’t stop his chest from shaking with suppressed laughter and it seemed like Reiner was having the same problem. Armin and Jean managed to have twin looks of exasperation while Mikasa and Annie just sipped at their own drinks. Eren glanced over the two of them.

“What are you drinking?” He could see bits of a crushed up leaf in the two glasses. Mikasa and Annie were the only two he had given the breakable glasses to, although Connie had managed to sneak one for himself as well. Everyone else had a version of plastic-glass; he couldn’t remember exactly what it was called though.

“Mojito,” she replied quietly. “It’s a… fresh taste almost if you get it right. Connie needs a bit more practice.”

 

“I think it’s ready,” Armin called from the kitchen. He managed to stave off Sasha with the slotted spoon and his ‘don’t fuck with me’ face. No one messed with that face, at least not if they wanted to keep their good grades.

 

“Go play a game or something while the food cooks Sasha,” he ordered. They had lined up a variety of foods for the fryer. One of the rules of ‘Deep Fried Friday’ parties was everyone had to bring enough of something for everyone and one bottle of a liqueur or mixer, receipts attached. The money was pooled at the end so that the cost was the same (they had all almost killed Sasha when she had bought lobster).

 

“TRUTH OR DARE!” she screamed, pointing a finger at Mikasa first. Mikasa stared at her for a moment before draining her drink.

“Truth,” she replied flatly. Sasha deflated, with more than Eren looking incredulously at her. She gave a half shrug with a smile.

“Sasha and I were talking before, I don’t like the sound of the type of dares she wants to do tonight.”

“Fine,” Sasha muttered. “Truth. If you didn’t feel responsible for half of us would you have gone to a different university?”

 

A chill settled across the room, and Eren found that he wasn’t alone in almost chugging down his drink.

“True.” The quiet admission settled a minute of silence across everyone. “Annie, Truth or Dare.” The blonde blinked for a moment before motioning at Connie, who was quickly making up a few more drinks for those that had demolished theirs.

 

“Dare,” she replied coolly before she drained the rest of her glass.

“Tango with Sasha around the room.” Mikasa grinned as Annie’s eyes narrowed. Reiner hooted and Bertholdt was clutching his sides. Everyone else looked lost.

“Wait Annie can dance?” Sasha squeaked.

 

Eren caught a bare glimpse of Annie’s smile as she stalked towards Sasha and felt a shiver crawl down his spine. A few minutes passed while Sasha tried to escape Annie, but eventually found herself in Annie’s arms being led around the room.

 

There was one thing Eren was definitely sure of now. Annie could definitely dance, and she danced well. He wasn’t sure if anyone else’s eyes were glued to the pair, even with Sasha stumbling over the occasional furniture. He was even surprised to feel a touch of disappointment when the two stopped and the music ended.

 

Music ended? He glanced over at Mikasa, who was now putting away her phone with her plotting smile on. Connie just handed Annie another one of those mojitos, and Eren found his eyes following her movement.

“What?” she asked, staring around the room. Even Sasha seemed to be lost for words. Annie took the opportunity to down half off her mojito before pointing at Jean.

“Truth or Dare asswipe.”

 

“Dare, why do you bother asking?” Jean asked, cocky grin back on his face.

“Because it looked like you were questioning who you’d most like to kiss for a moment,” she drawled, only stumbling slightly. Her eyes widened slightly for a moment and the room grew still. Eren was fairly certain she was cursing herself. Incredibly, the only one impervious to it seemed to be Jean.

“Kiss? What the fuck?”

“Your dare is to kiss Eren.” Her speech was only a heartbeat faster than her normal voice, which Eren would remember later. During the moment he only felt the blind panic hazing through his eyes.

“With tongue,” Annie added. Her eyes flicked towards Mikasa, towards Eren before looking at Jean.

“Or are you too chicken? Playing chicken means paying for all the booze you know.”

 

Eren wanted to run only he was a millisecond too slow and was caught. His hand screamed in agony at the pressure before Kirchstein drew him up close. The actual kiss took some time for his pain to factor in because _fuck his hands still hurt_.

“ _Full on action Jaegar and Kirchstein._ I’ll even foot your booze bill Jaegar if you give us a show,” Annie called out. He could barely hear some protest in the distance as Jean’s tongue slipped into his mouth.

 

He couldn’t do this to Armin. At the same time, the pain and fogginess slowed his brain just enough that he felt himself return the kiss. His hands found Jean’s shoulders, but just before he was going to push him away, pain be damned, they separated.

He stared at Jean licking his lips before going to Connie.

 

“I think I need to sit down,” he whispered. Reiner or Mikasa, he wasn’t sure which managed to catch him before he fell.

“Shit Annie, I think that did him in. Is Jean that good?” Reiner seemed to have been the one that caught him.

“The bastard grabbed his hands,” Mikasa hissed. He could almost see her getting all feline furious at him, eyes narrowed and fur - no hair- rising.

“H-He d-d-didn’t know the extent,” Bertholdt murmured. He had to give kudos to the guy, standing up to Mikasa when she was in that state.

“I’ll be fine ‘Kasa,” he managed to slur out. “Just…” He blinked, trying to reorient his thoughts again. “Hurts.”

 

“Connie, make him a virgin would you?” Annie asked. Connie flushed and babbled something before getting cuffed by Sasha. She almost fell over laughing when she explained that Annie was asking for a _mocktail_.

 

He would normally feel affronted that Mikasa insisted that he drink it with a straw and her arguing with the four of them, but it let his mind drift to something he had forgotten in the aftermath. He glanced around the room and paused for a moment when he found it. Armin. He had kissed Jean in front of Armin. He got up, somehow he’d found his way to a chair, but was easily pushed down by Reiner.

“Give him time,” he ordered. Eren blinked up before scowling. That was his best friend. He needed to make things right.

“No, trust me. Give him time to cool off.” Reiner pasted on a grin as Jean drew up a chair across them.

“No hard feelings there Jaegar?” Jean asked nonchalantly. Eren couldn’t keep the scowl from his face, but found a large hand covering his mouth before he could even _begin_ to describe how he felt.

 

“I think it might be best if you’re on opposite side of the room for now,” Bertholdt suggested firmly, tightening his hold on Eren.

“Mikasa, I think the fryer’s ready. Can you check while I pop to the washroom?” Armin asked. Eren stared at him as his friend practically fled the room, not waiting to hear the reply.

“I… I think we’re done with Truth or Dare now then,” Eren rasped as Bertholdt loosened his grip. He took a sip of the drink, appreciating for a moment how the cranberry and pineapple blended. Hopefully he wouldn’t die of guilt before the night was done.

“Jean, you take care of the frying. I’m going to check on Armin,” Mikasa ordered.

 

Jean looked like he was about to protest before catching a good look at her face.

“Okay then. Someone teach me how to not make my hands look like Eren’s.” Eren blinked for a moment, wondering if he had imagined that quiver in Jean’s voice or not. It was Mikasa, so it was entirely possible that he had been just that terrified, but he wasn’t sure if he understood why. Reiner seemed to take over as his head became slightly foggier. Someone, probably Sasha judging by the ponytail, shoved a pill into his mouth and muttering something in front of his face until he swallowed it.

 

The first batch of fries had come out when the fog lifted and Sasha beamed, pointing at Eren.

“See! I told you we just had to wait!” He winced slightly at her piercing voice.

“What the fuck?” Most painkillers he took made him sleepy afterwards, which was half the reason he hadn’t taken any for the last half day.

“It’s weird right? But this brand doesn’t make me as sleepy and well… even if it made you tired I think you needed one Eren.” He had to admit that she was right, even though he wished that it wasn’t necessary.

 

He nabbed one of the fries, raising one eyebrow and Sasha gave a nervous laugh.

“Reiner said if Jean didn’t know how to work it he should just practice with something we didn’t care as much about.” A light kick to the side of his leg caught his attention and he glanced up at Annie.

“Idiot,” she declared. “Why don’t you go get Armin before the other idiot starts burning the good food?”

 

It clicked that Armin wasn’t back, and if the painkillers took the typical amount of time to kick in…

“They aren’t back yet?” he asked, suddenly alert. Annie shook her head and her voice dropped low.

“You weren’t supposed to kiss him back you fucker.” Eren felt his face warm, it wasn’t entirely his fault!

“Right and it’s my fault for my brain being out of sorts,” he grumbled, pushing away the thought that well, maybe it was. “That was a shitty move Annie.”

“It was supposed to be a smart move and you screwed it up dipshit.” Eren stared at her, confused.

“Nevermind. Everyone is fucking oblivious,” she grumbled. “Except the three of us that see you less often how the fuck does that work?” She waved at him. “Go make up with your friend.” Eren stared at her baffled before he carefully worked his way to his room.

 

“Mikasa?” he asked. His door opened slightly to show a sliver of Mikasa’s eye.

“Not a good time,” she murmured, glancing sideways.

“Just… wanted to make sure he was okay. I zonked out partway from pain and Sasha gave me something to help. I figured it’s probably been twenty minutes and Jean’s managed to not burn himself yet with Reiner’s help… … I think. There’s fries ready.” He shut his mouth as Mikasa glared at him.

“You still ramble too much,” she scolded lightly. Her head turned in for a moment and he could barely hear her whisper before the door opened and suddenly closed behind him. He could hear Mikasa’s voice behind him and wondered just how _that_ happened when Armin’s voice caught through the fog that remained.

“You didn’t mean it?” Armin whispered, wringing his hands.

 

Eren stared, Armin looked… almost normal. He was almost betting that Mikasa had been at him with a makeup kit or _something_.

“Mean what? Jean was an ass and Annie was a jerk.”

“Kissing and… holding him?” Armin whimpered. Eren stared at him.

“My hands were on him to push the asshole off Armin, fuck if it hurt me more. That was the last thing I wanted to do to you and I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking and I… shit yes I kissed him back but _Jean’s just an asshole._ ” He felt like he was repeating himself too much, but he wasn’t sure what else he could possibly say. He felt like Armin was putting him through some lie detector test.

 

“I swear if I hadn’t been loopy I would have run out of the room faster than he could have grabbed me.” That got a small smile out of Armin.

“You were pretty slow today.” He took a deep breath, clenching his pants. “I guess I should take over the kitchen again.”

Eren shook his head.

“Only when you’re ready. I was worried, but I was all foggy earlier too until Sasha’s meds kicked in. I’m not sure if I want to ask what it was.” A grin crossed Armin’s face.

“Yeah, it’s Sasha so you might not want to know.” He paused for a moment. “Tell them not to start any of the delicate stuff yet. Mikasa will make sure things aren’t too bad but I’ll try and help soon.” Eren felt like he was getting x-rayed again by Armin’s eyes.

 

“Next time, get Hanji to pour the water. Or invite her over to cook the food. She can cook right?”

“Brownies at least,” Eren muttered. “I don’t know if I want to subject the rest of our friends to her just yet.”

Armin’s laughter lifted his heart more.

“Next time then,” Armin suggested with a small smile on his face. Eren returned it and offered a hand for Armin to take.

“Next time.” He couldn’t stop the small laugh from escaping him. “We’ll try to keep her antics from the fryer.” Armin just stared at him and the quietest chuckle left his mouth.

“It might be fun.” Armin sounded like he was dreaming. Eren smiled slightly.

“Well I’ll try to save the day until you’re ready.” His hand was on the doorknob until Armin’s voice stopped him one more time.

“Eren, I’ll try to tell you everything some time.”

Eren glanced back with a small smile.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he assured before making sure that their dinner wasn’t completely ruined. Relief swept through his chest, and the smallest part of his mind was amused by how their friends were starting to expand from just one small mistake.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a horrible person.


	5. Idiots and Talking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren decides to ask for help and gets more than what he asked for. As a result he has to put up with an unexpected visitor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At some point I'll figure out a faster way to deal with the formatting, but for now it's going to all be weird spacing. Sorry for that. After the next chapter I may make more effort for it. (Mostly just hate having to write html code in while I'm actually writing).

It was moments like this that he remembered exactly _why_ he avoided getting sick. He wasn’t actually sick, but at the same time he wasn’t able to maneuver quite how he would like. It wouldn’t stop him from trying until it hurt though. Which was precisely why he was now thumping his head against Armin’s door, with his bandages dripping water all along the hallway in the early afternoon. Water, fine. Soap, fine. Those two plus friction hurt way more than he remembered from his past experience. Then again, his dad may have stopped him from doing too many of the household chores while he recovered. The memories from back then were a little fuzzy.

“Oh it’s messy head.”

Eren felt his face shift from general exhaustion to irritated and tired beyond belief. “I didn’t know we were starting stables here, although I should have guessed from the smell.”

Jean gave him a once over before stepping to the side.

“You’re really off your game,” he commented. Eren rubbed at his eyes with the palm of his hand.

“I need help with the dishes,” he mumbled.

“What was that Eren?” Armin asked. Eren glanced at his shoes, he still hated asking for help even if he needed it.

“I need help with the dishes,” he repeated. The silence unnerved him. He wasn’t sure if he even wanted to lift up his head or if he just wanted to bear with it and finish the dishes on his own.

 

That was quickly becoming a better and better idea in his head as the silence continued.

“Know what? I’ll manage,” he muttered and attempted to flee back to his own room. A hand gripping his arm had him pause for a moment.

“Fucking wait would you? Fuck, you’re so impatient,” Jean grumbled. “I just…” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s been a while since the three of us hung out so I wanted to bring over a game and Armin’s been nixing them all. He’s getting a pack of cards.”

“You could have said something!” Eren burst out.

“You could have looked up,” Jean shrugged. “You need help and I’m around so there isn’t even a good reason to say no. I… I’ve needed to talk to you too.” Eren felt a small twitch forming in his eye. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know why Jean needed to talk to him.

“It isn’t a big—well okay it’s a kinda big deal but it’s not life-changing.” Jean reassured him.

“Is Jean apologising yet?” Armin asked, carrying a pack of cards. “Were you using the gloves?”

 

Eren normally did the dishes barehanded, liking the feeling of clean dishes. Armin however, had sensitive skin and kept a set of rubber gloves he had lent to him earlier. It had worked through the first set of dishes, the ones that accumulated over most of the week. Until he had started to sweat through the bandages and everything rubbed wrong. Then it just became a huge mass of pain that he had thought he had gotten past already.

“Yes, they made it worse eventually,” he mumbled. “So I took them off and thought…”

“Eren,” Armin scolded, “You should have come over then.”

“You’re busy,” he defended.

“Yeah, soooo busy,” Jean drawled. “So busy he’s been watching me launch kittens from a cannon.”

“What?” Eren’s jaw dropped at Jean’s smirk.

“Is _that_ what it was? I was confused why the hell a cannonball would bleed. How would a kitten even bounce that high _anyways?_ ” Armin frowned. “And _why_ were you playing that?”

Jean gave a half shrug before exiting the room, pulling Eren across the hall towards his room.

 

“You do your homework or whatever you need to get done. I’ll finish your bloody dishes.” He grinned. “Hopefully you didn’t actually bleed on them.”

“Hopefully there won’t be blood on them when you finish. _Actually_ clean them. Please?” The last time Jean had tried to help clean up Eren had followed him around to redo it. He personally didn’t have many issues with cleaning, but at the time it had felt right to have the house as _just so_. He had gotten a bit better with it after moving though. It seemed like distance did make a difference, just like Armin suggested.

“What’s going through that empty head of yours?” Jean asked, squinting slightly at Eren.

“Armin,” he muttered. “Just, shit he does to help everyone.” He glanced at Jean to see his face transitioning from… something to the weirdest smile he had ever seen. Fond, Jean looked fond that’s what it was.

 

“Well, you can always make me something,” Armin teased.

“Make you and Jean something for helping out,” he muttered. “I probably owe Jean that much in terms of hush money anyways.”

Jean barked out a laugh at that as he headed to the kitchen area.

 

“Come on Eren, I’ll redo your cream and bandages. Don’t argue.” Eren gave into Armin’s steely eyes and let himself be led to his room where his bandages were carefully unwound. He really hated this stage of burns. The skin wasn’t bursting with liquid anymore, but the skin wasn’t lying flat either. It was like he was one stage from bursting a blister, and he always popped those. He had learnt better now though. That shit hurt more, mostly because the most of the sensory neurons are located in the hands and feet. He mused over that, trying to remember where the second most were while Armin was working on his hand. It helped distract him from the constant throbbing of his hand.

“Eren.” The scolding tone took him from the listing of different body parts and back to Armin.

“Yeah?”

“Painkillers?” Armin sighed. He had a feeling Armin had asked him properly before and just couldn’t be bothered to repeat the entire lecture.

“I thought it would be better to take a day without, just so I don’t push myself too hard for a day,” Eren muttered.

 

Another sigh escaped from the blond, but it seemed lighter than the previous one.

“You got through most of the day without it, but the dishes may have made it worse. Extraneous situation?”

 

Eren had to admit that was a pretty good reason for him to take the painkillers.

“Just one then. Think we’ll have to redo any of the dishes?”

“Me, Eren. You aren’t going near the sink while it has water in it.”

Eren raised his hands in defeat. They both left to find Jean having dealt three hands of eight cards and the stupidest smile on his face.

“You’re kidding,” Eren’s voice fell.

“Nope, you didn’t have that much left actually, why did you need help?” Jean wasn’t accusing him of anything, rather seemed outright curious.

“It was pretty bad,” Armin commented. “We’re playing crazy eights?” Jean nodded and Eren slid into a seat. If he tried to anything around now anyways then Armin would shove him into one and duct tape him to keep him there.

“You didn’t stack the deck did you?” Eren joked.

“Not this time,” Jean grinned. Armin was clattering around in the kitchen, neither of them really wanted to ask why. Armin could be absolutely angelic or he could be worse than your worst nightmare.

 

“Who else wants tea?”

“Sure,” Eren grinned. “Tea with my painkiller sounds awesome.” Jean snorted and Armin chuckled. Jean only shook his head at Armin’s questioning look.

“There’s some leftover booze from the weekend if you want,” Eren offered. “Just don’t kiss me this time.” That actually hurt more to say that he thought it would. Minus five to your roll for Charisma Jaeger, you fucked up again.

“Maybe I’ll restrain then, just for you.” Jean’s smile was a little strained as well as he glanced up at Armin. “Water’s fine.”

 

It was only when they heard the sound of rushing water that Jean leaned forward, his voice quiet.

“I was an ass for that. I’m sorry.”

Eren’s eyebrows rose in surprise while he processed the information that Jean Kirschstein actually just apologised. To him. His jaw slackened as that fact began to hit and he was fairly certain an odd sound came from his throat.

“Yeah I’m apologising. It wasn’t fair to you. Well, in a way I guess it was.” Jean frowned and shuffled his hand. If Eren didn’t know better he would think that Jean was fidgeting.

 

“I didn’t think you would do it,” Eren replied quietly. There was the quiet click of the kettle and a further sound of rushing water. “I tried to shove you away and…”

“I know,” Jean sighed. “It was fucking stupid of me but… I just… I wanted to learn something.”

“Like what? If you like boys? ‘Cause I think that would only be news to you then and you could have just asked _anyone_ in the room,” Eren hissed. Jean scowled and the edges of his cards hit the table with a sharp thunk.

“Fuck it Jaeger I’m _trying_ to apologise.”

“Did you learn what you needed?” Eren asked sharply, leaning back and his eyes narrowing. He wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to know the answer. He knew for sure he didn’t want to know what question Jean had stuck in his head.

 

The fact that Armin had brought out two mugs of tea and a glass of water, before Jean answered, was almost answer enough for Eren.

“I don’t know.”

 

Both Armin and Eren looked up at Jean. Armin glanced between them, Eren ignoring the question in his eyes. Armin had broken down enough; he didn’t need to worry about this on top of everything else.

“Don’t worry about it Armin. I just asked him a hard question.” He brushed it off even as the hurt settled in that Jean didn’t want to say anything else. Hell, they didn’t really get along, but they were friends in their own weird way as well.

 

Armin glanced between them, and Eren knew that it was unlikely that Armin would just accept that answer, but hopefully neither of them would be questioned about it at any point in time. For some reason he felt like he was poking at a beehive with how Jean was reacting, but he didn’t understand why. He understood the action and how his words were poking at the hive, but not why the hive was placed where it was. He paused for a moment to erase that metaphor from his head and try to move the game along.

“Thanks for the tea Armin.” He placed the painkiller in his mouth and swallowed quickly. He coughed as the flavour hit his tongue and he shot an accusing glare at his friend. Said friend that was looking all too amused at his predicament now.

“What did you mix?” he coughed. Jean’s expression faded from offended to curious as he glanced between the two.

“Just the cold remedy tea and ginger.” Armin smirked as he took a light sip. “Although you have three times the amount of ginger in your tea. I thought you might be able to use the immune boost.”

“Armin,” Eren drawled. “You could have warned me.”

“And you could have not been assholes talking about me while I was in the kitchen, but you were weren’t you?”

 

Busted. They were so busted. He fought to keep his gaze on Armin, knowing that a flick of the eyes to Jean would give him away.

“We were talking about how cute you are,” he lied. He didn’t expect the simultaneous blush from the two of them.

“W-w-were not,” Jean stammered. Eren hid his own smile behind his mug. Maybe then he wouldn’t have to keep checking over his shoulder, or worry whether Armin was in a ‘cry on your shoulder’ or ‘your face is disgusting’ mood. That still confused him. He briefly thought about Annie’s offhand comment but it still didn’t make any sense to him.

 

“I-It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me,” Armin mumbled before hiding his face in his cards. “Who’s going first?”

“The asshole in the room can go first,” Jean muttered, focusing on the flipped up card.

“Is that you or me today?” Eren asked glibly. His throat locked up when Jean stared at him though. He didn’t think that he had ever actually pissed Jean off. They might yell at each other, and get into fights over the stupidest thing but he didn’t think he had actually ever seen Jean angry _at_ him.

“If you have to ask, it’s you.” He could almost feel the heat ray trying to fry his body through the cards.

“What’s _wrong?_ ” Eren asked, setting his mug on the table carefully.

“What’s wrong?” Jean demanded. “You and your timing and your fucking _party_ when you just went and injured yourself. Now you ask Armin for help when he has his _own_ work?”

“I—” Armin tried to interrupt.

“Hey! It wasn’t _my_ fault. Weren’t _you_ the one that fucked up in the first place?”

“ _I didn’t pour goddamned boiling water on your face did I?_ ” Jean slammed his hands against the table and stood up.

 

Eren glared as he matched Jean’s height, without the flair of shaking the table so that tea spilt all over it.

“No, but you’re the reason she was even over,” he hissed. “No warning no—”

“You were the—”

“ ** _Enough!_** ” Armin screamed, almost tossing the table over as he looked at the two of them. They both stared at him in stunned silence.

“I was hoping for once the three of us could actually have some fun together! I’m sorry I was wrong! Jean get the fuck out!” He stormed out, banging the door shut and there was a thump against the door before there was another loud bang.

 

Shocked silence still blanketed their anger, but it didn’t take too long before Jean stormed out, grabbing his bag Armin had thrown out, before closing the door a little quieter.

 

Eren found himself left with a table covered with spilled tea and cards, but he only felt the frustration welling inside him. He couldn’t even _punch_ anything to help. He kicked at the table, feeling a little better at the dull throb of his foot. He tried to do the breathing exercises that Armin had taught him, anger management he had called them.

 

Usually they helped, but today they weren’t helping them at all. He hissed as his phone beeped a text at him. He fully intended to ignore it until he’d be able to pick up the phone without the desire to hurl it into the nearest wall. Mikasa had yelled at him last time he had done something similar, and staying on her good side was definitely a good thing. Mikasa would have stopped the situation. The anger he felt at everything, his helplessness, his misunderstanding of what seemed to be _everything_ , began to shift to guilt. He glanced down at his phone, which seemed to be almost constantly chiming now.

 

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: What happened?_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: What’s wrong with Armin?_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: Did you two fight?_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: Was it about Jean?_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: Eren are you even there?_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: Helllloooooo_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: Answer dangit!_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: Don’t be like Levi_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:15pm: Even if you like him._

 

Eren forced himself to take in a deep breath and let it out before he answered. In which time there were three more texts of nonsense.

 

**_Eren_ ** _5:16pm: Stuff I don’t want to talk about it_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:16pm: Hiding isn’t the ans._

Eren scowled at that. Hiding? He wouldn’t hide. If he liked someone he would just go and _tell_ them and not this entire fucking game of cat and mouse between Jean and Armin that he someone seemed to keep getting caught in the middle of.

 

**_Eren_ ** _5:16pm: wtf_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:17pm: Your problems. Ask your fairy godmother (moi) for all the answers!_

**_Hanji_ ** _5:17pm: What happened though? Really. Armin’s giving half answers and I could barely tell you were involved somehow._

**_Hanji_ ** _5:17pm: Are you both okay?_

He felt oddly touched by her concern for some reason. He pushed the sentiment down; most of her attention on him was probably her feeling guilty about accidentally getting him to burn his own hand. He had promised himself he wouldn’t set up his emotions like that ever again. He scowled down at the phone at that thought. She seemed content to wait, to hear his reply, or so he thought until the chime sounded again. He would have to change that tune soon. He was getting sick of it already.

 

**_Hanji_ ** _5:20pm: Would yelling at Levi help at all? I hear it’s really cathartic. Supposedly he only tosses really shitty jokes back at you. I wouldn’t know though! He just yells at me when he’s feeling grumpy._

**_Eren_ ** _5:20pm: No I need time_

She seemed content with that answer for now, given the prolonged silence. He had even more respect for Levi dealing with her now. His chest gave a weird lurch when he realised that they hadn’t set up another day where he’d be able to cook for him. He didn’t even have a method to contact him. He frowned down at his phone. Hanji probably had his number, and he wouldn’t mind if she gave it to him. Except that then he’d have to deal with Hanji some more and he didn’t know if he had the mental power for it today.

 

Another day, he decided. For now, an anger and pain nap seemed like a good idea. He settled down on the uncomfortable couch and felt himself slowly drift off into an uneasy sleep.

 

It was the chime that woke him up, and he swore at Hanji as his hand banged into the couch causing a brief flash of pain to jolt up his arm. Except it wasn’t Hanji he should have been cursing. Armin had texted him. He stared at the name for a few more minutes before he actually read the message. He didn’t think that Armin would have cooled down that quickly.

 

His body ran cold at the message. Hanji coming over? He definitely didn’t want to deal with that. Not today, not now, maybe not ever again. Except that ever would have to eventually happen. He sent a message to Armin so quickly that his fingers hurt. Some excuse about homework and a nap. Hah, there he was using some of the tricks that Armin had taught him about lying. He had no intention to do homework, even though it was slowly piling up. The nap was true though. Perhaps a shower later might be in order. There was just something so calming about the water. Armin had once said something about water dousing the fire of his anger, or maybe that had been Mikasa. It was hard to tell who was telling him what sometimes. Even their threats were both particularly harsh. He frowned as he remembered the two of them getting him to get his hair cut. It was completely unfair that they both knew how to threaten him, but he wasn’t able to do the same to them. Well, he knew Armin’s weakness but he wasn’t _that_ much of a jackass.

Most importantly, he wanted to finish getting himself pieced back into someone actually civilized before he saw anyone. Never mind that he barely knew Hanji and Levi. Although it almost seemed like someone could know Hanji pretty well after being in the same room as her for five minutes.

Instead of a shower, he opted to dunk his head under the washroom sink. Smithy singles had their own bathrooms, many of the students joked it so that they could have a spot to scream where they wouldn’t actually be heard by people over the running water. Plus the water in the room was shit and the communal ones were better anyways. If it was any other day he might have done that, but a shower to deal with his own mind had been too tempting.

 

The sound of his door caught his attention and he realised he hadn’t actually locked it after Armin had left. Hopefully it wasn’t someone creepy. He shook his head to get rid of most of the water before walking out.

“Hey, I can help you later…” he trailed off as he saw who was standing by his table, wiping off the tea he hadn’t gotten around to wiping down yet.

“Unlikely,” Levi commented. Eren swallowed and offered a sheepish smile.

“You came with Hanji?” he asked. “She put you up to this?”

“No to both. Although Hanji is the reason I’m here.” He had his glasses on again, and Eren wondered why he swapped between the two. “She was rather insistent that I get your number, but Armin wanted to make sure you ate.” He chuckled and Eren felt his stomach sink even further down. Just another thing he would have to owe Armin for.

 

“I’m not going to eat you Jaeger, although if you don’t sit down so we can actually eat I might resort to that as a last measure.” Eren finally glanced down to the table to notice that there were two heaping bowls of pasta there and he couldn’t stop himself from laughing, even when he caught Levi’s frowning.

“Feeding me is just Armin’s excuse. He made too much pasta again, especially if those are the servings he gave you.” Levi’s frown lessened and Eren almost swore that he saw a half smile.

“Here I just thought you were a bottomless pit. Scratch that, I assume that all post-secondary males are bottomless pits.”

“You weren’t?” Eren couldn’t stop himself from asking, and laughed at Levi’s face. “Maybe if you had you wouldn’t be so—AH!” he shrieked at the well placed kick to his shin.

“If you call me short again I’ll make you wish you had just let your friends freeze your clothes.”

 

Eren paused; he didn’t remember telling Levi what Mikasa had threatened him with. This could only mean that Armin had told him, the traitor.

“Well I didn’t actually finish it, so does that mean I get one free pass?” He could see the approval in Levi’s eyes before the older male sat down in one of the chairs.

“One. Now sit the fuck down.”

“So you didn’t have work today?” Eren asked as he took the seat. Levi rolled his eyes as he spiralled spaghetti around his fork.

“It’s been over two hours since I finished the day.”

“Well how am I supposed to know you switch personalities halfway between the day?” he grumbled.

“Time.” Levi shrugged before stuffing pasta into his mouth. Eren gave him a half smile before twirling his own pasta.

“So you got in the middle of a lover’s tiff and that’s why you had tea all over your table?” Levi asked. Eren almost spewed his mouthful over the room, but managed to swallow the whole forkful of pasta. He winced at the burning feeling in his throat and could just barely hear Levi sigh as he got up.

 

“I’ll get you a glass of water, dipshit.”

Eren gave a short laugh at the insult. Somehow Levi made it seem more like a term of affection rather than an insult, or maybe more of a mixture of the two.

“Hanji mentioned some of it to me, but had some other shit to deal with. Why the fuck you lot don’t just shove them into a room and lock them in there is beyond me.”

“Had that happen to you?” Eren rasped. Levi rolled his eyes as he shoved a glass of water in front of him.

“At least you keep your kitchen actually _organised_. No, thankfully, but I think that Hanji and Petra are starting to contemplate it.” Eren sipped at the water, letting a small smile cross his face as Levi continued to eat. It did seem odd that Levi would stay here to eat when it had been Armin that had invited him over, and that he had mentioned he was busy to Hanji.

“You’re avoiding them aren’t you? They’re talking about something and you’re hiding here.”

He laughed as Levi paused and looked up at him flatly.

 

“A bit.”

Eren grinned at Levi’s obvious reluctance and his face fell when Levi mentioned Armin was worried. Guilt smashed him like the Blitzkrieg. He wasn’t even angry at Armin; he wasn’t sure what he was angry _at_.

“No,” he bit out, a little too sharp for his liking. He took a deep breath in before he continued.

“Just… weekend shit. It’s stupid.” It was the closest source he could think of, and how Jean had just brushed the entire thing off when Armin was so clearly head over heels for the asshole.

 

He bit his lip to stop from laughing at Levi’s deplorable language. The man had some weird methods to try and get him to talk. He couldn’t stop from feeling the tiniest bit stupid when he smiled back. Hanji was right, somehow Levi was therapeutic even if he was, or wasn’t listening. Maybe it was the language that finally had his body relax and lose most of the tension that had built up.

“You have a weird way of getting people to loosen up,” he laughed. He glanced down at the bowl and tried to redirect like Armin had taught him, stabbing the bowl with vigour. Levi continued to stare him down, pressuring him to talk.

“Fine. During dessert.” He could talk and eat, but he needed the time to sort through his own thoughts. He wasn’t sure how much about Jean Levi knew, they had been working together for a while, but they may not have interacted much.

 

He should keep their personalities out of it, and despite how much he hated to focus on himself. This was also his problem, even though he still felt like he was somehow only getting half of the story and never wanted to ask for the rest of it. He was only slightly distracted from his thoughts when Levi went back over to take some out of the bag. Pie? He knew his entire body lit up at the thought, but a fucking pie was a perfectly good reason for that. There was only one thing that could make it better.

“Pumpkin?” he asked. If he had a tail, he’d be wagging it like crazy. Fuck that, his imaginary tail was pounding the chair into dust. He hadn’t had pie since they had ‘moved out’.

 

 

He cackled at the thought of leaving Hanji and Armin pie. If they didn’t come to claim it, he didn’t give a damn. They were going to eat the entire thing. He stood up quickly and his foot caught in the chair. Thankfully he didn’t land flat on his face this time and managed to make it to the kitchen to get a knife and clean plates. He rambled for a bit; his brain just processing that there was _pie on his table_. He stopped for a moment when Levi’s voice broke through his reverie.

“Eren, Moblit can bake.” It took him a while to remember who Moblit was. He could only remember some association with Hanji, but not all the details. The promise only took a little while to process before his face broke into a grin.

“Right.” He faltered for a moment before remembering his pile of homework that was piling up. “I don’t know if I—“

“You should bring Armin, and meet your odd counterpart,” Levi interrupted. He sighed inwardly; he had a feeling that Levi was going to be just like Annie when she was dragging them all out. There would be no saying no, and honestly he didn’t really want to either. Maybe he could bring some of his homework over and they wouldn’t mind.

 

“You can show me how to do groceries,” Levi continued. “Actual food groceries.”

It was that that tipped him. One, he couldn’t believe that someone couldn’t buy groceries. Two, it was weird imagining Levi staring at boxes in a grocery store.

“You can’t do groceries?”

“Not the right way, supposedly.” That only confused Eren more. He wasn’t aware there was really a _wrong_ way to do groceries, just what personal preferences were and… Oh. Knowing ripeness. Levi did mention ‘actual’ food groceries, so maybe he meant fresh food. His theory was proven as Levi continued on.

“I just stay to the frozen and pre-prepared shit.”

 

Eren couldn’t stop the smile from crossing his face and ducked his head down. Somehow he could see Levi going down the frozen section now going through packaged shit labelled with different animals.

“Don’t bother hiding, I know I’m fucking useless in the kitchen,” Levi stated. Eren’s eyes went wide. He snapped up and stared at Levi. He knew Levi’s confidence was shaken, but he didn’t think that he was hopeless at all!

“Cooking isn’t just doing things right or wrong!” After all he got them wrong more than right most of the time. He searched his memory for what he had once told Jean after a particularly bad mishap.

“It’s patience, knowledge and experience!”

 

“Even good people will have their fuck ups!” he continued, sifting through the words in his head. It was important to him that Levi understood this much. “People learning will fuck up even more. It’s continuing through those mistakes and learning from them that you get better!” He smiled, thinking that he might be able to just watch Levi by the end of the year, and not have to lift a finger.

“I want to help you, even if it’s just watching over you so that you don’t have to worry about shit going wrong.” He shifted in his seat slightly. After that one mistake they had taken turns jokingly hanging behind Jean with the fire extinguisher in hand. It was more to tease him than anything though, and he suspected the same thing with Levi might have an adverse effect.

“But I want to see you comfortable in your own space even more and confident in yourself.” He fought down the redness that threatened to invade his face. Here he was lecturing someone older than him about confidence. Except that it had been odd, seeing Levi so at home in his apartment, but a stranger in the kitchen.

 

He blinked as he realised that he had been _trying_ to talk himself out of going.

“Except that I have a shitton of work I’m behind on now,” he muttered, glancing somewhere that wasn’t Levi. He could feel the tips of his ears grow red. It wasn’t a full lie, and he wasn’t even entirely sure why he was trying to talk himself out of going.

 

He felt his skin jump at the sudden electric feeling of someone else touching his face. Levi’s laugh smoothed over the awkwardness he felt.

“Groceries will only take a half hour to an hour and I’ll pay for yours for the week.” He could feel his jaw slacken at that thought, before feeling completely defensive about an almost stranger paying for his food. Almost stranger whose house he’d been in. Who was friends with his friend. Whose friend had inserted herself into his and Armin’s life.

 

He deflated slightly as Levi drove the nail into his coffin. Only the rich and/or stupid turned down free food while studying. He said so much and enjoyed his reward of Levi’s low chuckle.

 

He glanced up as movement caught his eye and Hanji was standing right in the middle of the doorway. He deflated slightly that he hadn’t eaten more pie, so Armin and Hanji would probably con a fair bit their way.

“I don’t remember when I last heard you laugh,” she commented. That surprised him, it seemed like Levi had laughed a fair bit already while in his room.

“Maybe you just irritate him too much,” he suggested. Eren couldn’t stop a small smile though, at the briefest of sillythoughts that he just might be special.

He did have to shove down his laughter at the obvious drama between the two as she started to shepherd Levi out.

 

He started a bit when he heard Armin behind her, having not seen him behind her frame. It wouldn’t surprise him if they had done that on purpose. He stared for a moment at Levi’s outstretched hand, completely confused by its presence.

“Your phone. For my number,” Levi explained. Eren felt the heat he’d been fighting down flood his face. Levi had mentioned that earlier in the night and he had completely forgotten. It felt a little odd to him too though that he didn’t want to ask Hanji for it. It took him a while to figure out the layout of the contacts page, different brands were so odd.

 

He smiled a little as Levi ordered him to use the phone. Maybe he would send him a text later then, just because of that. Hanji practically shoved him out of the door, closing with him and Armin still in the room. He glanced over at Armin and their gazes dropped simultaneously.

“So… was that all you?” he asked. Armin fidgeted a little, both of them still looking away from the other.

“Just Hanji. She was the one that suggested bringing over Levi.”

“We still have to work on your portioning though,” Eren mumbled to the floor. He looked up at the tinkle of laughter that came from his friend.

“I love that you never think I do that on purpose.” Armin wiped a few tears from his eyes.

“Arm’, you do it all the time. Purpose would imply some difference. I see how much you make for yourself when I need help.” He smiled slightly. The tension dissipated between the two of them, their eyes meeting for a moment.

 

“I’m sorry,” they both spoke simultaneously. There was a moment of silence before they both burst out laughing again.

“Do you want some pie?” Eren asked. Armin raised an eyebrow.

“Things must be better if you’re offering.” He slid into the chair Levi had occupied until recently.

 

They shared a few moments of silence that was just filled with the wondrous taste and texture that was pie.

“He invited us over for dinner again,” Eren mumbled. He could _feel_ Armin’s smile, even if he wasn’t looking up at him.

“You did say you were going to teach him. What changed?”

Eren looked up, confused by the question. He was still going to teach him, so what was Armin talking about.

“Why don’t you want to anymore?” Armin clarified.

 

Eren felt his face relax and he gave a half shrug. He definitely still wanted to help him learn. There was just something magical about teaching and the look on someone’s face when they understood. There was just something changing as well and he wasn’t sure what it was.

“Arm’,” he called, glancing up and willing his courage to stay with him. He waited until Armin’s eyes met his own and felt himself waver for a moment. His tongue felt swollen as he spoke and he almost had to force every word out.

“Why are you upset with me?”

“I’m not.” The answer confused him. He _knew_ there was something about him that Armin was having trouble with; he could practically see it on his face, and through his door.

He bit his lips, debating whether he should push or leave it alone now.

 

“Okay. Why were you upset with Jean?”

“I was upset with both of you for talking about me when I was in the room but couldn’t hear you,” Armin corrected. “It got a little too much when you two just started fighting like normal. I overreacted.” Eren frowned. Armin didn’t overreact. It felt like an overreaction, but when he had been on the opposite side it was always because Armin knew something that he didn’t.

 

“Arm’,” he continued.

“Eren, drop it.” Armin’s tone was harsh. Normally Eren’s self-preservation instincts would kick in and he’d listen, but it felt like he had listened to them for a little too long now.

“No Armin,” he protested. “You keep saying it isn’t me and that you’re being stupid. I know you aren’t. I can tell that you know something and it’s about you and something to do with me. Just… tell me so I can stop worrying or actually help!” He could see the determination and stubbornness in Armin’s eyes.

“No,” Armin stated. “I’m not telling you. I’ll keep my door shut and locked if that’s what it takes.”

 

Eren stared wide eyed at Armin; it couldn’t be that bad could it? It hurt that Armin would go so far to keep him away from that information.

“Armin, I’m worried. Half the time you shut the door in my face I swear it isn’t about Jean, it’s about me. Tell me why. I’m _not_ imagining it.” He was almost certain that he wasn’t imagining it.

“No,” Armin wavered.

 

Eren sighed, pushing his pie around on his plate.

“Armin… you realise you practically admitted that it is because of me? What am I doing? What should I stop—or start doing?” he asked. He hated seeing Armin this way, like pummelled meat. Guilt settled in his chest that he was at least partially responsible for that today.

“I—” Armin hesitated. “I can’t tell you.”

“Armin,” Eren decided to try a different tactic. “You can’t keep it in forever.” He flinched a little at Armin’s glare.

“I. Don’t. Want. To. Talk. About. It,” he drawled out.

“Armin, if I get locked out of your room I will, but honestly, either stop shutting me out or stop pretending it’s only your fault. Because it isn’t.”

 

Armin sank back into his seat.

“I… I can’t Eren. Just… I’m afraid what you’ll think.”

“How the hell can I react badly to it?” Eren asked incredulously. Armin glanced up with a wry smile.

“Trust me, you would.” Armin paused and sat up straighter, a flicker of brightness back into his eyes. “What if I told Mikasa and she told you it was all okay?” he asked.

Eren frowned. Telling Mikasa could mean two things, with four different results. Either Armin would tell Mikasa, or he wouldn’t. Mikasa might listen to him, or might not. She often refused to get in the middle of some of their arguments, but had a tendency to knock heads together when she did get involved. If he didn’t tell her though, he might get her to just text him the message and not tell her anything, or he might actually tell her and she would refuse to tell him out of principle.

“Fine, but you can’t tell her to freeze me out and I’m calling her.”

Armin grew tense and Eren met his eyes.

 

“A week,” Armin haggled, “Within the week.”

“Armin, you’re procrastinating.” A laugh erupted from Armin’s mouth, catching Eren off-guard before he found the amusement in the situation as well and a chuckle escaped his lips.

“You. Are the last person that should accuse me of procrastinating,” Armin laughed. Eren smiled and pushed more of the pie towards Armin.

 

Hopefully Armin understood. Eren could eat an entire pie easily, and didn’t often like sharing when he had it.

“Apology accepted,” Armin murmured and speared another slice. “I don’t eat that much though.” Eren rolled his eyes and smiled as he dragged the tin back over.

“Do you want a movie?” he asked. “I can put on Shrek.”

A wave of relief flooded through him as Armin smiled.

“Sure, we can make a night of it.”

 

Night, he was supposed to do something tonight. His face slackened as he realised that he hadn’t texted Levi yet so that he had his number. He scrolled through his contacts for a few minutes trying to find the name. First under ‘R’, and later from Armin’s suggestion, under ‘L’.

“Where the fuck,” Eren swore as he pulled up the master list. He stared at his phone for a few moments before laughing.

 

“What is it?” Armin asked. Eren waved him off as he slipped in Shrek and sent off a quick text with an almost instantaneous reply.

 

**_Eren_ ** _7:40pm: Eren_

**_Apprentice Chef_ ** _7:41pm: Took you long enough._

 

 


	6. Cooking Season

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shopping times and meeting Moblit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for making you all wait for this chapter so long. The next one will hopefully be sooner because it's pretty much all written. I have been updating the Levi POV first though. 
> 
> Also here's where I make the fun statement that despite being Canadian... all I know about hockey is you smack the puck with sticks into the net. So if there's anything weird please do let me know.
> 
> I'm sorry for the lame chapter summary and chapter title.
> 
> EDIT: Oh my fucking god. I didn't realise some of Remmy's notes made it in. Chapter has been fixed of it's Shrek and Sometimes jokes.

Eren sighed as he finished another lap around the ice rink. The protection was starting to feel heavy, although it might have just been his worries. Mikasa hadn’t texted him; Armin hadn’t poked by asking him if he wanted to have an orange. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was with oranges and sports. If he bothered to look then he’d probably find the reason. It just hadn’t interested him too much at the time and now… Now he wasn’t sure what was happening with everyone. It felt like they were all drifting away and when he tried to pull them back together it only thrust everyone further apart.  
   
 “Eren! Get your head in the game! I want to see you _skate_ , not mosey around!”  
 “Yes Coach!” he shouted and shook his head to refocus himself.  
 “Take an extra five laps! Get used to your gear!”  
   
 Eren shouted an affirmative and sped up, adjusting to the feeling of padding again. Most of their training until now had been without the gear. With the community season starting soon, they were starting to train with the padding and the puck rather than physical conditioning. Agility and strength were completely different when mobility was restricted and visual field diminished. He took in the difference between his abilities and tried to find the best way to compensate without crashing into anything, or anyone.  
   
 “Watch it Jaegar!”  
 “Say that again during the game Dawke!” he called back. He might complain now, but the differences now might help him later during the scrimmage.  
 “Keep at it! Cross overs!” The shift in motion caught half of them off guard. Eren slipped slightly when his movement went through and his balance fell off. He swore and just managed to right himself and avoid the fallen bodies.  
 “That’s why we’re having this practice boys and girls! Line up!”  
 Eren turned sharply, smiling at the amount of control he was able to get in the turn as he skated to the center line.  
   
 It took a minute or two for them all to line up, various sizes all around. He glanced to his right as Dawke pulled up. Eren was one of the younger ones on the team, the majority of them in the age range of late twenties to late forties. Sometimes he felt intimidated by that fact, but today everything felt just shitty enough that this practice was just what he would need.  
   
 Pixis skated down the line, eying them all. Eren couldn’t help but feel nerves tying him together again as Pixis observed him. He was brilliant as a coach despite eccentric in some of his methods. But that would occur later in the season from what he had heard. It was his first time with the Titans; his previous team was the Hunters. Last year he had only played street hockey in the summer. It was through them that he had heard of the community hockey teams and managed to sign up just in time for the winter training.  
   
 “We have some new faces with us this season, but I think this season will be better than any other.” Everyone stood a little straighter. “It’s normal to fall after a summer practicing without equipment. Most of all, everyone will protect each other, support each other and everyone will bring us to victory.”  
   
 Eren was a split second slower in placing his hand on his chest and participating in the chant. There were two other new faces on the team, supposedly. Everyone was fairly new to him though.  
 “Newbies take a skate forward! Vets, you know the drill!” Eren felt his heart rate quicken as he took a step forward. He jumped when he felt a hand drop on his shoulder and glanced over to see Dawke.  
 “Vets, take your young Titans in hand, everyone else shoot outs and crossovers!”  
   
 Eren scowled slightly as he was dragged over by Dawke. The other two had their own people dragging them over.  
 “How does defense sound to you?” Dawke asked him casually. Eren lifted an eyebrow.  
 “Pixis has a mentor for each newbie, catch up already,” Dawke continued.  
 “I wouldn’t know, my previous team I was playing offense,” Eren answered sharply.  
 “Well, Pixis thinks you’d be a good defenseman, possibly a good enforcer but we don’t run into much trouble with that,” Dawke pointed out.  
 Eren stared in disbelief.  
 “Trust me kid, Pixis knows his stuff. You skate better than I thought with that shit on. You played before then?”  
 “Yeah, but I was in another league before university,” Eren answered slowly. His brain seemed a little slow to catch up today. “Why doesn’t he pair up earlier then?” Eren asked. “Normally it’s during entry to the team isn’t it?”  
 “Nah, this way Pixis can watch how we all interact and what everyone would do best in. Our team’s a good mix of offense and defense. If each part individually works well, we all work well. That’s just how we end up playing. Are we done with the stupid things now?”  
   
 The rest of the afternoon felt long. Although Nile taught him better ways to move his body while he skated. He discovered that he could make sharp turns easily and pick up his speed. He could have sworn there was a grin on Nile’s face when the team split up later to scrimmage. He still almost ran into a few of his teammates and ended up with a sheaf full of papers full of the team’s typical strategies, but Nile and Pixis seemed convinced that he was a perfect fit for his new position. So long as, Pixis had told him, he dealt with his anger issues and kept them out of the games. It would take time to get used to the team, Nile had told him. As he played more he would play better, provided that he get used to his teammates. That had devolved into an invitation out for a dinner after practice, which he had to decline.  
   
 It took a while for him to convince half the team that it wasn’t a money issue, and that he actually did have plans. At some point he even showed Dawke the text messages he and Levi had sent to verify the time for groceries. Although he did have a bit of an odd expression when he explained who ‘Apprentice Chef’ was and seemed to help shove him out of the changing room and that he should go home and shower. He wasn’t really sure what was up there, except that Nile probably knew Levi in some manner. He might ask about that later in the day. They weren’t actually planning to meet up for about another hour, giving Eren plenty of time to cool down and to spend some time searching up different recipes that might work. Unfortunately it meant that he was running later than he meant to for an actual shower. He supposed washing quickly would just have to do.  
   
 Levi was going to be down around three or so and it was two-thirty as he ran to gather all his gear for the showers. He used the main ones, rather than his own shitty shower. The bathroom was handy for emergencies, but the water pressure was horrible and always ran cold. The communal showers were only moderately better. By moderately better, he could get warm water and somewhat steady pressure. He sighed slightly as he stood under the water. That was one thing that he wanted his own apartment for, and one of the few things he missed about their house. Even though Mikasa would forget sometimes and turn the tap on while he was in the shower.  
   
 He laughed about it as he trudged out into the hallway in his pants. The laughter quickly died on his lips however as a familiar figure paused in front of him.  
 “Tell me you aren’t going out like that.”  
   
 Eren stammered as he shrank in front of Levi.  
 “I-I’m r-running a bit late!” Eren stammered. He felt his face grow red, even though he wasn’t entirely sure why. He walked back to his room all the time in just his pants after a shower, sometimes if it was late enough it would be just a towel.  
 “I haven’t quite figured out what a good recipe is, but I pulled up a few on my computer for you to take a look at,” Eren blurted out. He paused for a moment, before looking at Levi, all traces of blush disappearing from his face.  
 “How did you get in anyways?”  
   
 Levi rolled his eyes and snorted. “It’s a dorm, it’s hardly secure. If it worries you too much though, I ran into your friend on his way out.”  
 “Oh, Armin. Right he does have a class soon.” He fumbled slightly at opening his door.  
   
 He was thankful that he had already done some of his research so that Levi had something to do while he got changed. Hopefully they would have some time where he’d be able to answer any questions that Levi had. He typed in his password quickly, a ridiculous joke that they had made in first year. He glanced back at Levi to see him nod as he explained he was going to change and left him in his living room with the laptop.  
   
 He didn’t take too much time picking and choosing clothes, just grabbing a set off of the top of his laundry basket – which was all clean thank you very much. He took a few moments just to make sure that he was putting them on the right way around, not inside out and backwards. That was saved for exam season when he really didn’t give a fuck.  
   
 He smiled slightly as he saw Levi with an intense look of concentration at the screen. The older man seemed oblivious to his presence as he watched him scroll down the chicken parmesan recipe. The cursor swayed from one side of the screen along the top of the display. He supposed Levi had finished with that one and was trying to flip the tabs.  
   
 He leaned on Levi’s chair as he suggested the control and page-up or down keyboard shortcut to navigate the different pages instead. He had stumbled on it completely by mistake, but it was rather handy when he had to flip quickly. Mikasa and Armin always complained about his touchpad sensitivity anyways.  
   
 He smiled a little when Levi jumped at his voice, but attempted the shortcut.  
 “Didn’t like the chicken?” He wasn’t sure if Levi was the sort that left the browser tabs alone, or cleaned up as he went. He was betting that Levi was the latter though.  
   
 He smiled at Levi’s explanation that he’d rather look at everything first. He was glad that Levi was looking at all of the recipes first before figuring one out. He glanced down at what he had actually put on when Levi asked if he was leaving dressed as he was. He was probably going to overheat today actually. He had put on a long sleeved shirt and jeans in his haste, so he just gave Levi a half shrug and nodded.  
 “I don’t get cold too easily,” he explained. Actually everyone seemed to use him as a body warmer during the winter when they were outside.  
   
 “Right, no complaining if you do get cold then though,” Levi warned.  
 Eren resisted laughing at the thought before suggesting that he would just steal Armin’s sweater then. Actually, it was so much more likely that Armin would use _him_ as a sweater. He blinked for a moment as Levi motioned him closer and leaned in to look at the recipe.  
 “Stir-fry?” He started to make the mental checklist for the groceries. Flank steak, chicken breast, broccoli, cauliflower, ginger, onion, oyster sauce... He was pretty sure that was all. Levi was still sitting down oddly enough so he tugged him up and closed the laptop lid.  
 “Aren’t—?” Eren was fairly certain he was going to ask if he was going to take down the ingredients that were required. Except that he had made this often enough with Mikasa and her parents that he was quite comfortable with their version of stir-fry.  
 “I’ve made it a fair bit,” he explained. “Do you mind a bit of a walk first before we go?” He had run out of his ginger and the grocery store close by sold out quite frequently so that he would go to the other side of town to make sure he could buy some. He was fairly certain that Mikasa would be in her room and would have some that he could steal.  
   
 He paused. They might only have to pick up all the vegetables and meat. He smacked his head.  
 “I’m an idiot sometimes. Did you keep all the raw food from the last time?” he asked, glancing over at Levi. Levi seemed almost offended that he had even asked.  
 “What else was I going to do with it?” Levi shot back. Eren smiled weakly, he knew too many people that threw out fruit when it had even one small blemish on it, so that he wasn’t sure if Levi was that type of person.  
 “I dunno. I wasn’t sure if you were going to just throw it all out.”  
   
 It might have been a mistake to look into Levi’s eyes when he said that. He felt like he was a captain lost at sea, stuck inside of an endless fog that surrounded him. Will o’ the wisps taunted him as splotches of blue that shone and reflected in the fog. He fidgeted a little as his assumption was quite clearly proven wrong.  
   
 “That would be a waste of good food,” Levi’s voice cut through the tension and he slowly relaxed.  
 “Plus I knew we would be working together again,” Levi added.  
 Eren tried not to relax too much as Levi attempted to put him at ease. “Okay, so we just need the meat and vegetables then.” He wondered if the cuisine was something that the older man liked in general, or if it was something he just wanted to try and make on his own. Well, he wouldn’t know unless he asked. “Do you like Asian cooking?”  
 Levi appeared thoughtful as he considered the question, and suddenly Eren wasn’t quite sure if Levi had even tried Asian cooking before.  
   
 “I’m not sure.” Levi’s answer was hesitant, but Eren took it in stride.  
 “Okay, one minute then…” he went over the fridge and shifted over containers of food that he should _really_ throw out. The bottle he was looking for was way at the back, from when he had made that weird bok choy thing that Mikasa and Armin liked. He just didn’t like buying those leafy things much.  
   
 “Oyster sauce,” he told Levi, showing the bottle as he slammed the fridge door shut behind them. Some of the different brands were absolutely terrible, and he usually dragged Mikasa shopping with him whenever he needed to get more because she was better at recognising the different brands than he was.  
   
 He ran through a separate checklist just before leaving. Keys, front pocket. Wallet in the back pocket, and phone in the opposite one.  
 “Keys and pass?” Levi asked. Eren stared for a moment while he realised that Levi was checking he had the items as well.  
 “Yeah, why?” he asked. It seemed odd for Levi to worry about such a thing. He didn’t really get the impression that the stylist cared that much about making sure he had everything on him before leaving.  
 “Because Hanji’s a dipshit,” Levi explained. Eren felt his jaw slacken in realisation. That made a lot of sense, especially given how the two interacted together. He could understand why Levi would want to make sure that she was able to get back into her dorm. He smiled at the thought of Hanji begging Levi to let her stay over. Levi would probably break open the doors before that, but the image of it amused him slightly.  
   
 He managed to remember to lock his door this time, Armin would be proud. It startled him to find Levi already moving towards the door. It wasn’t just that he was heading in the right direction, but the certainty to his movements.  
 “You know your way around pretty well,” he observed. He paused for a moment before walking again as Levi turned around and continued to walk while talking.  
 “Hanji used to live here. I would check in on her when Moblit was overwhelmed with his own work.”  
 Eren stared at him as a realisation crossed his mind.  
 “But how—no, nevermind. I want to be able to sleep at night,” he muttered. It would be better that he not know exactly how Levi was able to check up on her. The RA probably recognised him and would let him in. Yeah, he didn’t have to worry about having a window room on the first floor at all.  
   
 “Then it’s a good thing you won’t be locking yourself out,” Levi joked. Eren couldn’t help but return the joke.  
 “You’re saying you’d break in for me?” he teased. He felt the smallest inkling that he would regret asking that only moments after he said it. However, Levi only shrugged noncommittally He kind of hoped that Levi at least wouldn’t leave him high to dry, but then again they didn’t really know each other too well outside of the salon and the one meal.  
   
 “If you did, you’d probably stay at my place or Hanji’s,” Levi offered. “I’m not going to fucking kick you out on the street and I doubt you’d like Hanji’s place much anyways. Fucking long hours and a shitton of noise and she’s in the fucking booneys.”  
 Eren couldn’t keep the small smile from his face. It was interesting that Levi would offer to let him stay over though, and he hadn’t honestly thought of Hanji. Although, wasn’t her life partner staying with her as well?  
   
 His train of thought cut off abruptly as he stared at the car in front of the dorm. He was pretty sure that was the _exact_ same car that Hanji had driven him back in.  
 “Wait, isn’t this…?” he trailed off. He swore Levi was expecting that question from the Cheshire smirk across his face.  
 “Courtesy of Hanji. Sometimes she practically forces me to drive, probably just because she’s too lazy to actually clean the shitty thing by herself.”  
   
 Eren cringed slightly at the implication of how dirty Hanji’s car usually was.  
 “I’m glad she cleaned it before then.”  
 Levi snorted as he slid into the driver’s seat.  
 “That’s only because the asshole was driving me to pick up my contacts. Fucking crushed them three weeks ago.” Eren winced slightly. He didn’t really like wearing contacts himself, but they were handy for hockey practice so that he didn’t have to fit the helmet over his glasses. There was just something about having his fingers near his eyes that he just flinched every time he tried to put them in. Even after two years of wearing them more regularly.  
 “So you prefer contacts?” Eren asked. He had seen Levi wearing both, but if Hanji was driving him to pick up contacts he was a little curious to his preference.  
 “For work mostly. Hair on glasses is a fucking pain in the ass to get off on a regular basis. This way all I have to worry about is the kids that come in with water guns. Thankfully only Hanji’s childish enough to actually try and shoot me in the eye.” Eren felt his lips twitch into a smile. Despite how much Levi was ranting about her, he could hear a slight tone of fondness in his voice.  
   
 He knew they hung out during the school year, but he was curious just how long they had known each other. Levi however, beat him to ask the next question.  
 “What about you? You don’t seem able to make up your mind between glasses and contacts.”  
 Eren scrunched up his nose as he remembered his horrible habit.  
 “Well, I have a horrible habit of sleeping with my glasses on. So I switch to contacts if my nose and ears hurt too much or something. Oh! I also wear the contacts for hockey practice! It’s much easier to put the helmet on when I’m wearing them compared to glasses. Plus I don’t have to really worry about them breaking. Especially when practice gets really gruelling like it did today.” He thought he saw Levi’s eyes drift a little as he diverged about the practice until he remembered one thing he wanted to ask.  
 “Do you know Nile Dawke?”  
 Levi’s spine almost shot straight and he stared venomously at Eren.  
 “Oookay, never mind I shouldn’t have asked. Do you have a particular sport?”  
 Levi seemed to settle down a bit and there were few minutes of silence as the car pulled out of the university. Eren assumed he wasn’t going to answer the question and glanced out the window to watch the scenery go by. Or Levi could just be the type of person that didn’t talk while driving.  
   
 Actually if he always drove with Hanji she probably talked more than enough for the two of them. It was actually weird how the two got along. He would have pinned Hanji as an extreme extrovert and Levi as a fairly strong introvert. Something was somewhat off with his observation though. Something he had seen, but not thought about. He shrugged it off as Levi parked in the grocery store lot. It didn’t really matter.  
   
 “Snowboarding.”  
 Eren stopped and looked at Levi for a moment. It took a few seconds for his brain to connect what Levi was saying to why he was saying it. He smiled slightly, remembering when Armin had dragged him and Mikasa to a slope to try. It was alright. After the first two hours they were able to actually stand up all the way down a hill. “I have the balance of cicada.”  
 “A what?” Levi asked, turning to look at him as they walked into the produce aisle.  
 “A cicada. Like on Planet Earth? Where they just fall off branches and shit?”  
 “If you have no fucking balance how the shit can you skate?” Levi asked. Eren stared for a moment like he was just realising the same thing.  
   
 “It’s a different type of balance?” He half expected Levi to argue about how it wasn’t. Instead he got a heavy sigh, a sideways look and something he could barely hear.  
 “So where do we start?” Levi asked. Eren could almost hear him biting his tongue to keep the expletives from escaping. Which made perfect sense since there were families shopping.  
 “Well probably by getting a cart but I usually get whatever veg and fruit I want first and leave the cold stuff to the end. So meats, milk and ice cream. But we shouldn’t have to worry too much about that since you have a car.” Eren drifted off checking his mental list again. Broccoli, they were fine for ginger – and of course there actually happened to be some in stock today. Except he was also supposed to teach Levi about ripeness of fruits. He frowned slightly, wondering for a moment why he didn’t just web search for the answer.  
   
 “So, what fruit do you normally like, or buy?” Eren asked.  
   
 It would be easier to just show him the tricks for the ones he actually liked instead of going down the entire aisle for every fruit. Hopefully none of them were fruits he was unfamiliar with. Then again, that’s why smart phones were a blessing in disguise.  
   
 Levi gave a half shrug and there were a few moments of silence. Eren supposed he was running through a list of what he _didn’t_ like.  
 “Blackberries. Those are actually okay frozen, same as blueberries and mangoes.”  
 Eren winced. He had forgotten that Levi actually bought frozen fruits for the most part. Maybe he should just make a fruit salad for them tonight and Levi could figure out which fruits he liked from that. Levi seemed to be a few seconds ahead of him in that realisation.  
 “Why don’t you just get what you normally do and I’ll try some of it? If I don’t like it you can take it all home.”  
   
 Eren felt the laughter bubbling out of his chest before he could stop it.  
 “I was thinking we might be able to make a fruit salad tonight. Then you’d be able to try a bunch of fruits at once.”  
 Levi’s nose crinkled a little, maybe just the thought of so many fruits in one dish, but conceded that that the two ideas together might actually be a good plan.  
   
 After that, fruits almost flew into the grocery cart. Levi would pick out a few and offer them to Eren, who would either put it back after another inspection – telling Levi why at the same time, or put it into the bag.  
   
 Vegetables took them a little bit longer. Levi generally knew what he liked for those, and they didn’t always share the same tastes. As a result there were almost twice as many vegetables in the cart than the fruits.  
   
 He guided Levi to get meat at the butcher if possible. Not only were there a wider variety of cuts (if asked), but the meat was generally better than the packaged ones. He was a little dumbfounded when Levi commented that it was more expensive. At least until he realised that the older man was looking at all the pre-prepared meats, such as the kebabs.  
   
 He did a quick look for goat. He had a slow cook recipe he’d been dying to try. Mikasa had been begging him to make a stew recently and he thought he finally found some meat she might actually like. Unfortunately they didn’t seem to carry it here.  
 “It’ll probably only be at some of the ethnic stores,” Eren sighed. He’d have to pick up the sauces too. He still had some of the leftover chicken pot pie, surprisingly enough. Hanji seemed to have packed more than half of it away for him and taken barely three servings for herself and Petra.  
   
 Levi had a grossed out face, probably imagining bull penis or something. He couldn’t help the small laugh at the thought.  
 “Goat, I’m looking for goat. Not too many places carry it though and it’s a pain to order it when I’d have to carry it back.” One of the few instances he really hated not having a car. But overall he maintained that it was ridiculous for him to have one when he’d be paying more than it’s worth. Levi gave a half shrug, which made Eren wonder what he possibly thought he had been looking for.  
   
 After the vegetable and meat section it was a lot easier to go up and down the aisles. They shared a comfortable silence while just tossing random things into the cart. Levi seemed like he was buying almost every conceivable kind of cleaning product. He hid a small smile, a familiar voice in his head going ‘Inconceivable!’ It had been far too long since he had seen that film.  
   
 He started when Levi spoke, breaking the rhythm.  
 “How is it?” he asked, gesturing towards Eren’s hand. Eren glanced down. He had changed the bandage after his shower and had looked much better, but not as well as he had hoped.  
 He mentioned as much, as well as his desire to take his own notes for once. As helpful as everyone was being; their notes weren’t quite as comprehensive. Unless it was the classes he kept daydreaming in.  
   
 Levi interrupted his thoughts. “How did you burn your dominant hand?”  
 Eren felt an awkward smile come across his face. He found that several people did find it odd how he had different dominant hands depending on the task. He grabbed a few cans and packages of soup, defending his choices momentarily to Levi before he bothered to answer the question.  
 “Anyways my dominant hand shifts for fine motor and for other stuff so I play, pour and smack people with my left, but my right is all the lab work and writing and stuff. I can’t shift the two though it feels strange.”  
   
 As they passed through the frozen food section, Eren checked the prices of the frozen pizzas and winced slightly. The ones he typically bought weren’t as expensive, but still on the pricey side for students. He pointed out the cheap ones to Levi; they were just as good as the more expensive brands. He hid a smile as Levi took one of them to try.  
   
 They seemed to have quickly gone through the store, although his phone said otherwise. He usually took around a half hour or so in order to grab all his groceries and go, but today it seemed like there was a lot more to go through. A little over an hour had passed, but it was good to spend more time talking and actually looking at different products.  
   
 He helped Levi load his groceries onto the conveyor belt, fully intending to pay for his own groceries, even though Levi had offered. He ended up getting shoved away from the conveyor belt and had a few half-hearted protests before Levi practically shoved it as his ‘teacher fee’. He cursed as the cashier asked about bags. He knew that he was forgetting something, and while Levi might be willing to pay the extra few cents for bags, Eren preferred the cloth bags. Besides, they rarely ripped.  
 “Don’t be so uptight or you’ll get constipated.” Eren couldn’t help but imagine that and feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. He should have remembered Levi’s sense of humour.  
 “I just forgot to bring bags,” he muttered, looking towards the end of the conveyor belt and placing the divider when the next person came up.  
   
 He smiled when Levi offered, in his usual colourful language, that he could just carry the bags out if he was feeling guilty. Eren paused, wondering if Levi would mind him taking all of them or if he wanted to carry a few. He tossed the worries out as he grabbed a few of them in one hand, Levi already carrying the others. He held out a hand to Levi, eying the bags. It was better to be balanced and carrying more after all. He worried that Levi would ignore it, but he only rolled his eyes and paid for all the groceries. Eren winced at the price, but remembered that Levi would have gotten some food for himself during the week. Right?  
   
 The bags went into the backseat, because Levi didn’t give a fuck if it was clean because it wasn’t his car and he had to clean it half the time anyways. So he said. The silence felt far more comfortable now, but he still felt the urge to talk, to fill the empty air.  
   
 Levi helped unload the bags from the car though and walk back to his apartment, leaving Hanji’s car at the salon. It took far longer for him to unpack all the groceries, mostly because he had to make sure that they were leaving out the ingredients for dinner and he had to find the ginger. He was fairly certain that Levi had just shoved the bags of his groceries into the fridge, regardless of whether they had to be refrigerated or not. He hid a smile as Levi cursed and took his frozen pizza out to actually put it in the freezer. It faded slightly at Levi’s comment in regards to timing.  
   
 He had hoped that they would be here shortly. Most of his interactions with Levi had been tempered by Hanji and there was just something that had him still on edge for some reason. Even with the suggestion of a movie, he was still hesitant, but why? Besides the fact that movie might take them too close to dinner time and food might not be ready quickly.  
 “Oi,” Levi startled him out of his thoughts. “Stop looking constipated over this crap. We have enough time for a movie and Hanji will gripe if she isn’t allowed to help.” That seemed true enough, and it might help him get to know Levi better as well. They really hadn’t had much time alone when tempers were running low. He slumped as he gave in under Levi’s tirade. At least there wouldn’t be any awkward silences.  
   
 “Is there something wrong with my company?” Levi accused.  
 Eren’s eyes went wide and he was fairly certain garbage just flew out of his mouth as he thought of why he was so hesitant. Which he still hadn’t quite pinned down. Alone in a room with someone, he only ever felt like that when he had walked in on Jean and Armin _almost_ kissing. He turned bright red from the memory and wished that he could just dissolve now and forget the entire night. He had no clue how that even tied into why he felt so wary of Levi.  
 “Fuck you then,” Levi said, stepping over him. “I’m putting on Princess Bride.”  
   
 Eren almost shot up, his eyes widening. He had just been thinking of that movie earlier today. He wondered if Levi had some mind reading ability and couldn’t help but cry out his thought. “Inconceivable!”  
 Levi’s posture relaxed and Eren smiled. Perhaps the next two hours wouldn’t be so bad after all!  
   
 He sat on the floor, head resting on the cushion, ignoring Levi muttering “Barbarian.” It seemed like Princess Bride was actually one of the few DVDs that Levi owned.  
 “It was worth it,” he explained. “Rather than the shitty movies they come out with now.”  
 “Just start the movie already,” Eren whined. He mock-whimpered as Levi gave him a light slap to the back of his head.  
   
 He managed to keep his mouth shut for the first few sequences, at least until Buttercup was on the boat.  
 “I always found it odd how they had the reading intersecting the actual story,” Eren commented.  
 Levi hummed, looking perfectly content in his corner of the couch. “They made it work though; it’s definitely one of the better book to movie adaptions.”  
 “I still liked the book more though, there’s so much more sarcasm and some of the background is easier,” Eren replied. Eren could almost hear Levi rolling his eyes as he replied.  
 “How about you shut up until Humperdick starts talking,” he suggested.  
   
 Eren found himself holding in giggles whenever someone mentioned ‘Humperdink’ for the rest of the movie. He couldn’t believe none of his friends had made that joke at all. The guy was a dick as well. He wondered around the halfway point if perhaps Levi had said that to get him to actually shut up during the movie.  
   
 The last scenes started to play before he dared to open his mouth again. Levi had shot him glares whenever he had opened his mouth during the movie.  
 “I still think that I enjoy the book more. It helps make sense of the movie.”  
 He heard Levi scoff behind him and frowned.  
 “No, I’m not kidding you, the book helps make sense of the movie!” he argued. When he had first watched the movie he wasn’t able to hear, let alone understand, the backstory of some of the characters. He saw Levi roll his eyes this time, so continued the tirade.  
 “Oh, so you’re telling me you managed to get all the backstory stuff down?” he demanded. He fought back a scowl, or maybe it was a laugh, when Levi scoffed and said it didn’t matter.  
 “What about true love?” he asked. That was something he swore he could actually see. He had seen it when his father looked at his mother. He could see it in his father after she died and he and Mikasa became his only family. He would swear on his mother’s grave that he saw it between Armin and Jean.  
   
 “A story,” Levi whispered. Eren felt like his heart became a rock, sinking lower into his body. He knew he had issues with seeing the shades of grey, but that was one thing that people always told him, and he didn’t want to believe it.  
 Levi continued on. “A fairy tale they tell us to hope for a better world than the shitstain we live in.”  
   
 Eren let himself fall back against the couch back. Somehow he’d ended up on the cushions after all.  
 “It has some nice things in it too,” he argued. The places he wanted to visit, the things he wanted to see. There was beauty in the world.  
 “I never said there wasn’t,” Levi admitted. “People just don’t tend to be one of the better things in the world.”  
 Eren scowled at his feet.  
 “Wow, thanks.” That said tons about how Levi saw him, saw his friends and everyone else.  
   
 He wasn’t prepared for the odd mixture of pain and pleasure in his scalp as he was forced to stare into Levi’s eyes, closer to his height. The thrill shot through his body and he hid the quiver at the intense look in Levi’s eyes.  
 “If you weren’t one of the better ones, you wouldn’t be here.”  
   
 He never realised how much he needed to hear those words, but the tension in his hair was beginning to get distracting and he knew his face was a bright red from the mixed signals he was receiving. He tugged his shirt down, hoping to hide the problem before Levi noticed it. Except he did, he definitely did because he let go and Eren _swore_ that the older man was blushing too. Things couldn’t possibly get worse.  
   
 “TADA! I bet you missed us!” Scratch that. Why did he have to think that? It was a typical trope that always happened to play out in real life as well. He glanced over to the door to see Hanji behind a man. He guessed that this was Moblit, her significant other if he had understood Levi correctly.  
   
 He didn’t understand why Levi was suddenly scowling though, not even as maybe-Moblit held up a key. He looked between the two of them as the man continued to explain that they didn’t want to know what Hanji was planning. He wasn’t sure why Levi avoided her so much yet. He assumed there was a reason, but she simply seemed over exuberant to him, after he had gotten more used to her.  
   
 He definitely didn’t want her in his personal space right now though, which is unfortunately exactly what she did.  
 “Are you both _blushing?_ ” she asked.  
 Eren swore that his face got even warmer and that she was going to see the boner he had developed that hadn’t _quite_ gone away yet.  
   
 Thankfully Levi rescued him by answering first, saving both of them from her inspection. He dragged her off to the kitchen, leaving him with the maybe-Moblit. He offered an awkward smile and hand.  
 “Eren,” he offered. The man smiled easily enough and met Eren’s eyes.  
 “Moblit. I’m sorry if we came in at a delicate moment.” He wasn’t going to get rid of this blush in the near future was he?  
 “I, uh,” he stammered. He wasn’t even sure how to mention why it was a delicate moment, and that it probably wasn’t what he thought.  
 “Every moment with Hanji is a delicate moment, Eren,” Moblit suggested. Eren gave a weak laugh.  
 “Well, I suppose it’s a good thing one of my friends is just as excitable, but she’s limited to food. Hanji seems more rounded than that.”  
 Moblit sighed, and Eren could hear the trouble that Hanji caused him. Yet there was also an odd wistful tone to it. “Of sorts. She is quite driven when you get to really know her as well, but for some reason she doesn’t like people seeing that part of her. Sometimes I think she does these things just to keep me on my toes.”  
   
 Eren hid a smile, prompting a smile from the other man.  
 “That sounds like one of my friends. No wonder Hanji gets along with him so well.” Moblit’s stare became a little uncomfortable. Eren shifted from side to side.  
 “Is he the one she was talking about? Something about relationship trouble?” Eren flinched and opened his mouth to reply when they were interrupted.  
   
 They both froze at the shattering shriek that came from the kitchen. Eren was well aware that sound didn’t flow well from the kitchen unless you were in the doorway, so for them to have heard it…  
   
 Moblit seemed to have connected the dots faster and he was already halfway in the door to the kitchen. Eren was a few beats behind. He hovered outside the kitchen as Moblit led Hanji out.  
 “But he was being _mean_ Moblit! Like purposefully,” she whimpered. Eren glanced up at Moblit and entered the kitchen at a slight tilt of the head from the other man. He didn’t expect to see Levi on the floor, huddled into a ball like a small child. He hesitated for a moment before he tried to gently pull Levi’s hands away from his ears. He couldn’t do anything if he wasn’t looking or listening to him. He couldn’t really blame Levi either though. He didn’t want to think about how loud it must have been for him.  
 “Levi, are you okay?”  
 Levi slowly lowered his arms, looking haunted.  
 He couldn’t help the smile, wondering what he could have said to get that reaction. “What did you say?”  
 “Something that would never happen,” Levi grumbled. He rubbed at his ears, so Eren assumed that he was still having some trouble hearing. He hid a smile as while Levi asked Moblit about the neighbours and Hanji was dragged out to apologise. He never thought he’d be imagining her with a collar, but she seemed like a stray cat that had placed her leash in Moblit’s hands.  
   
 Levi was _still_ pawing at his ears. He wasn’t sure if he should really do this on another person, but at this rate Levi was probably going to hurt himself. He nudged Levi’s hands out of the way and placed his fingers just past the jaw line where the cartilage met and massaged the area. He backed off, looking at Levi, hoping that it helped.  
 “What did—” Levi started.  
 Eren smiled, glad that the trick had worked. “Little trick I learnt. Lots of fights when I was little and dad’s a doctor. What the hell did you ask?” he tried to change the subject again.  
   
 He gave Levi a few moments to reorient himself.  
 “She wanted to ask something and I was too snarky,” Levi admitted. Eren found that hard to believe. Levi seemed to be made of snark and irritability. On the outside at the very least. He still wasn’t quite sure, especially given how he acted when he was working.  
 “That’s possible?” He asked, with a lilt to his voice. Levi ignored the sarcasm.  
 “Evidently. I said I was going to toss her out the window if she was going to ask me out.” Eren imagined Hanji on her knees begging Levi to take her out while Levi kept trying to shove her off. Her clinging to Levi and his grumpy face. He felt the laughter bubbling out before he could hear the sound. He heard Levi starting to laugh as well, which was how Hanji and Moblit found them. Hanji looked practically astounded, while Moblit simply looked amused.  
   
 He glanced over at Levi, slowly regaining control of himself when Moblit came back.  
 “Well that is a change,” the older man commented. How was that a change? He felt like the three of them were sharing some massive joke that he just wasn’t getting. The moment Hanji said ‘dessert’, all traces of laughter left. He brightened when he remembered that Levi mentioned that Moblit was good at baked goods.  
 “Can I help?” he asked, looking between Levi and Moblit. Hanji and Moblit both laughed, probably at his excitement. Moblit suggested that he help Levi first and then help Moblit. He felt a little guilty, forgetting that he was supposed to be teaching Levi. He chuckled at the suggestion that Hanji should clean up the living room to keep her out of trouble. Moblit did seem to have a firm rein on Hanji from what little he had seen so far. She barely protested being sent out of the kitchen, although fitting four working people in would have been a bit of a squeeze as well.  
   
 He somehow managed to hide his laugh at their banter. Their nicknames for each other seemed to fit rather well. Trouble had Hanji written all over it, but he wasn’t quite sure how Moblit was Double. Perhaps Levi would be willing to explain it to him later. He glanced over, surprised at Moblit apologising about Hanji’s actions. He found her refreshing. She was bit exuberant and in need of learning boundaries, but refreshing.  
 “Why?” he asked, completely baffled. The two men stared at him in wonder and he found himself explaining. “I mean, I get that she’s kinda strange and all but… I dunno, I feel like anyone that helps out Armin is good in my books.” Armin seemed better lately, there were fewer days where his emotions were fluctuating. He tried to stop himself from fidgeting, especially when he caught Levi staring at his feet with a scowl.  
   
 “Armin?” Moblit asked, drawing Eren’s attention to him. He forgot that Moblit hadn’t met him yet.  
 “My best friend that lives across the hall,” Eren explained. “He alternates between needing my help and hating my guts.”  
 “Oh, the one with the crush?” Moblit asked. Eren stiffened. He hated that that was how Armin was described. Not his brilliance when he was being talked about, or his persistence. It was his romantic issues.  
 “Does everyone know about that?” he demanded. It was something he had intended for their group, but once Hanji had started talking about it…  
 Moblit cut off his train of thought. “Eren, I can’t stop Hanji unless I know _why_ something’s so important to her.”  
 “She’s getting freaked out she’s getting close to you all,” Levi added. Eren frowned. Hanji didn’t seem like the type of person that would freak out about _anything_. Then again, it was weird that Hanji and Levi would actually _talk_ given how much he seemed to dislike her.  
 “What?” Levi seemed surprised. “I can have civil conversations with the monster next door sometimes. It’s better than infomercials or _soap operas_.” Levi’s shudder had Eren laughing.  
   
 He caught Levi’s glance at the stove and agreed that they should start dinner before Hanji came in and nothing _really_ got done. The stir-fry wouldn’t take that long though, compared to the rice. He also had to check what Moblit was making and if that would affect their timing or use of the stove at all. It would probably be best if he got Levi to practice his knife skills some more, providing that the knives were actually sharp this time. He would be able to start the rice while Levi prepared everything else and that should deal with most of the timing.  
   
 “Have you sharpened your knives?” he finally asked. He stared at Levi’s smile. He seemed at home for once, and Eren felt a small warmth spread through him as Levi began talking. “That is one thing I can do well. They’re sharp.”  
 Except if that was the case, how wasn’t Levi aware that they were dull?  
 “I don’t use them frequently, so I don’t know when they get dull,” Levi answered his unspoken question. “Plus I can’t really feel it like you did. How did you feel it?”  
 Eren figured that he probably meant how he could tell without even touching the sharp edge.  
   
 Eren gave a nervous laugh, uncertain how he could possibly word it. It was something he had only really become aware of because of practice. Moblit saved him from answering though. Why didn’t Hanji just have Moblit teaching Levi? He shooed the thought away.  
 “What are we making?” Moblit asked just as Eren tuned back in.  
 “Stir-fry,” he answered with Levi. He stared at Moblit as the words ‘apple crisp’ left his mouth. A shudder ran down his spine and he only hoped his hands weren’t shaking.  
 “You’re kidding me.”  
 “Is there any baked dessert you don’t like?” Levi demanded.  
   
 Eren was about to open his mouth and say ‘no’ off the bat but there was something he had tried once he wasn’t too fond of. “Lemon meringue pie? But it’s more the lemon custard I don’t really like…” he trailed off while trying to think of what else there was. There was something else for sure that wasn’t a pie, but he couldn’t remember what it was called.  
 “That’s it?” Moblit’s voice jolted him out of his thoughts again.  
 Eren blinked and glanced between Moblit and Levi, uncertain where he had left off.  
   
 “It’s all you don’t like?” Levi rephrased.  
 Eren shrugged and gave an awkward smile. He had liked pretty much everything that had ever been put in front of him. Even brussel sprouts; damn he didn’t know why kids hated veggies for the longest time until he went to a friend’s house for dinner. No wonder if that was how they were cooking them.  
 “Well I haven’t really tried that much… Mikasa only really knows…” he paused to breath around the lump in his throat that was forming. It was almost ten years, he could do this already. “What mom taught her. I was pretty much hopeless.” He laughed as he remembered a mixing bowl frothing over from too much yeast and gave Levi a small nudge. “I guess we’re kinda similar in that aspect.” He hoped that would make him feel more at ease.  
   
 He didn’t expect enough force against his side so that he almost stumbled into Moblit.  
 “Tell me what to chop and take a lesson from Moblit,” Levi ordered. Eren couldn’t keep the laughter from pealing out, and it seemed Moblit couldn’t either. He never thought that Levi would be demanding him to take lessons, and not the other way around.  
   
 He caught his breath before he ran Levi through the order and how he should cut each item. He even tossed in a suggestion to keep his fingers clear of the meal. As delicious as Hannibal made human flesh seemed, he didn’t really feel like eating someone’s finger.  
   
 Levi moved quickly enough so that Eren looked expectantly at Moblit.  
 “Okay, so how do we start?” he asked quietly. Moblit patiently showed him where Hanji put all of the baking gear and what they were using. As well as a firm suggestion to put everything out _before_ he started so he knew he had everything. Which he wasn’t always the best at. He took a moment to rinse the rice before turning to look at Levi when he heard the slap of wet meat. He remembered that cutting the meat was always harder, so he shifted by Levi, ignoring Moblit measuring out granola. Most of the work would be peeling and cutting the apples anyways. He guided Levi’s knife a little further to the end.  
 “Try to keep them as thin as possible,” he suggested. He was glad that Levi didn’t elbow him or anything this time.  
   
 He glanced back as he heard Moblit’s snickering, loosening his hold on Levi’s arm. He wasn’t sure what he found so funny, but Levi seemed a step ahead in asking him.  
 “Having fun?” Levi asked testily. Moblit seemed to just take it in stride.  
 “Yes. I’m enjoying not chasing around eccentric children.”  
 “What?” Eren bit his tongue as it moved before his brain caught up. He hated doing that. Levi explained that Moblit worked at a museum, likely dealing with children on a daily basis. Perhaps that was why he was so well equipped to deal with Hanji. Or maybe his experience with Hanji made him more well-equipped to deal with the children. He rolled his tongue around five times, a suggestion from Armin when his tongue was getting ahead of his brain, before he asked.  
 “Is that why he’s able to deal with Hanji?” he asked. He hadn’t quite expected a laugh, but he was still unfamiliar with them all.  
   
 “Did I just hear the devil laugh again?” Hanji’s head poked into the kitchen. Her body was carefully outside of the doorframe. “That’s becoming a disturbing reoccurrence.” He scowled at Moblit’s wording of the affirmative. They were acting like it was a huge deal that Levi laughed once or twice. It wasn’t that strange!  
 “What’s the big deal!?” he demanded. He stiffened at Moblit’s hand on his shoulder. Somehow he began to calm down. He wondered if Moblit just happened to naturally exude a calming effect on everyone or something as he found himself relaxing tense muscles he didn’t even know he had.  
   
 “You haven’t seen too much of Levi, Eren,” Moblit explained, “He doesn’t really open up to people quickly. Especially certain people that cross every boundary known.”  
 Eren hid a smile as Moblit’s hand dropped from his shoulder. He was fairly certain that he was referring to Hanji. It was confirmed when she looked like a grumpy child sitting on the floor with her arms crossed, complaining about Levi being grumpy or something.  
 “You’re kidding right?” he asked, not really seeing Levi being overly grumpy all the time. He just figured he didn’t like talking to the average person.  
   
 He didn’t expect it to be Levi to answer him.  
 “She isn’t. Hanji’s half the reason I even have a social life,” Levi grumbled. Eren stared for a moment, resettling his mind’s picture of Levi. It made his past interactions with him seem even stranger now if Levi didn’t particularly like talking to people. So when Levi had mentioned earlier that he was one of the better ones.  
 “I didn’t realise,” he muttered, staring at the floor.  
 “If you didn’t gather that from the first time you met me I don’t know if you ever would,” Levi commented.  
   
  “Wait what?” Moblit interrupted.  
 Eren winced. Before he could even open his mouth though, Hanji had started the story, laughing the entire time.  
 “So, Eren here knows Jean, one of our apprentice stylists.”  
 “He ganged up with one of my friends to make sure I made my haircut just after exams,” Eren interrupted, turning almost scarlet.  
   
 Hanji nodded and carried on. “So, it was freezing out, so cold that my car at least had trouble starting. We were having all of our stylists calling in asking if they had to come in. Thankfully it seemed just as many people were having issues leaving. Except. Eren here, didn’t hear from Jean.”  
   
 Moblit groaned as Eren grimaced. “I left my phone at home and practically ran there.”  
 “So, I had to call in Levi, and Petra and he managed to talk him into getting his haircut.” Moblit gave Eren a sympathetic look.  
 “I’m sorry you had to deal with him like that,” he muttered.  
 Eren shrugged slightly.  
 “It was creepier seeing him on another day when he was in full work mode actually.” He cringed at how withdrawn Levi had seemed. He looked up to see Moblit almost… analysing him. He opened his mouth to ask a question right when Levi kicked him.  
   
 “Oi, _Teacher_. What now?” Levi demanded. Eren smiled at the sarcasm in his tone. He felt a little guilty getting distracted by the conversation as well though when he should have noticed that Levi was still working. He still had to start the rice too.  
   
 “Well we should get the pans out…”  
 “There’s a wok under the oven!” Hanji chirped from the door. Eren sighed in relief. He was more comfortable with the wok for stir-fry than with a pan. He talked about it a little as he put it on the stove with a touch of oil to warm up.  
   
 While that was happening he beckoned Levi over. He might as well show him how he washed rice. Levi was oddly fidgety about it, although Hanji cleared it up easily enough.  
 “Last thing Levi burnt in here was a pot of rice Eren!” she called.  
 “Then it’s a good thing I’m here,” he reassured Levi. He always had to keep an eye on steaming rice anyways. Mikasa was good enough to get it right with barely trying, but every time he tried he fudged it up somehow.  
 “The trick I learnt for rice in a pot,” Eren started, “Is if you aren’t sure if it’s too much water, you just boil it until it’s at the top of the rice and then cover it. Normally we would have started this first actually since it takes longer. You always want to start with what will take the longest to cook. Mom called it the rate determining step…” he trailed off. Levi seemed to be staring into space, frowning at the pot. Eren sighed.  
   
 “ _Levi_.” Levi turned to look at him. “Are you even paying attention?” It hurt a little when Levi shrugged. He wasn’t entirely sure what he said, but it was quite likely the same bullshit that Armin and his professors used on him about using time efficiently.  
 “How would it change if it was a rice cooker?” Levi cut off his rant. Eren turned away towards Moblit.  
 “I don’t know,” he muttered. He almost jumped when Levi just grabbed his arm.  
 “What?” Levi demanded, glaring Eren down. Eren glanced away, embarrassed to repeat it.  
 “I… never learned how to use a rice cooker.” He did jump when Hanji screamed.  
 “ _Oh! Levi are you thinking of getting one!?_ ”.  
 Levi seemed to be taking a moment to gather his thoughts, so Eren decided to add in the ginger. It seemed to catch Levi’s attention, so he started to explain the process for making stir-fry. He watched as Levi started the next item before glancing back at Moblit. He was still peeling and coring apples, an activity that Eren never really enjoyed. He glanced at the door, and burst out laughing.  
   
 “Hanji, how… long…have… you had… that face?” he asked in between breaths. She put on a fake smile, her eyes flitting from side to side.  
 “Look? What look Eren?”  
 “What the fuck are you talking about?” Levi asked tersely, his eyes flicking towards the corner. Eren smiled, Levi probably couldn’t see her from his angle.  
 “I think… Hanji got bored waiting for us and is making as many silly faces as she can,” Eren replied.  
 “That would be Hanji,” Moblit replied, not even turning around. “As childish as can be.”  
   
 He glanced at Levi as the two began to argue back and forth. He moved with some hesitance still as he added the next ingredient, but the argument didn’t seem to faze him at all.  
 “How long until Armin gets here?” Levi asked, glancing in his direction. Eren gave a small shrug and pulled out his phone to check the time.  
 “Soon,” he replied. He jolted as his phone buzzed. “Soon like now,” he muttered.  
 “ _I’ll get him!_ ” Hanji almost barrelled out the door, leaving the three of them standing in silence.  
   
 Eren opened his mouth to ask a question, but thought better of it and shut it again.  
 “Yes,” Moblit answered. “Hanji likes to be constantly moving. You might want to turn your rice down now.”  
 Eren glanced over at the pot and fumbled to turn it off as the pot boiled over.  
 “Not a word,” he hissed at the two. He could see Levi’s chest twitching with laughter.  
 “What, did Eren almost burn the rice again?” Armin asked.  
 “Eren burns rice?” Hanji asked. There was far too much glee in her tone.  
 “ _Hanji_ ,” Moblit warned. Her mouth snapped shut while Armin poked his head into the kitchen.  
   
 “There’s a reason that it’s usually me, Eren and Mikasa in the kitchen,” Armin replied.  
 “Traitor,” Eren muttered. Armin ignored him and continued on.  
 “Eren’s best with savoury things, but tends to have issues making sure something else doesn’t burn while he multitasks. Sweet things usually end up over-seasoned or overcooked. I don’t know how he does it.”  
 “Remind me why you’re teaching me again,” Levi deadpanned. Eren felt his face go red and opened and closed his mouth trying to find words.  
   
 “Because you asked asshole,” he finally muttered. “I’m going to the washroom. Try not to tell too many embarrassing stories Armin.”  
 “You’re good enough at embarrassing yourself Eren. I don’t see why I’d have to help.”  
 “Shut up.”  
 “Go take a shit already,” Levi interrupted the banter. “Before you get even more constipated.”  
   
 Eren grumbled as he made his way down the hall. The apartment was almost frighteningly clean. He swore that the bathroom almost sparkled and he could see his face in the sink.  
 “You aren’t really constipated are you?”  
 Eren jumped and spun around to glare at Hanji.  
 “’Cause if you are I’ll just go back.”  
 “No,” Eren admitted. “I just wanted to get out of the kitchen for a bit.”  
 “Why?”  
   
 Eren stared at her. Hanji was like someone completely different from the slightly deranged woman he knew.  
 “I have enough shortcomings without them always being pointed out,” he muttered.  
 “So you were uncomfortable with Armin—”  
 “No, I was worried what Levi would say.”  
 “Eren, he doesn’t care. You’ve told him your shortcomings before now, what’s different?”  
   
 He wished he had an answer for that, but the lack of answer seemed to be all that Hanji needed.  
 “Just think about it okay.”  
 “Are you always like this?” Eren muttered.  
 Hanji laughed. “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”  
 “I feel like you just quoted something at me.”  
 Hanji only gave him a mysterious smile.  
   
 “How about you fuckers get over here before we ruin the food!” Levi called. Eren sighed as he returned to the chaos. Hopefully the rest of the night would be quiet, but who was he kidding?  
   
 


	7. Long Nights and Early(ish) morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of a night of too much partying and SOMEONE going too far playing matchmaker.

The night lasted so much longer than Eren wanted. Levi had been kind enough to break him into his room, which he hoped he would forget, so the last thing he wanted was to wake up to loud banging on his door.  
 “What the fuck,” he mumbled into his pillow. He glanced to the bedroom door debating if he even wanted to check. Once he heard the knob jimmying he figured he should make some attempt to get up.  
   
 By some force of will, he rolled out of bed and took the covers with him. He was pretty sure he only made it to the door because he had travelled the same path so many times.  
 “What?” he mumbled, fumbling the door open. He wasn’t even sure who it was, his eyes felt so heavy.  
 “Oh, hey dude. You look like shit. Had a few too many shots last night?” the stranger asked.  
 Eren tried to blink away the sleepiness so he could answer that in some fashion.  
 “Sorry?”  
 The person seemed to look up and down at him.  
 “… Go back to bed Eren. I’ll come back later.”  
 “Connie? Is that you?” Eren looked up slightly. Armin’s door was wide open.  
 “Eren? When did you get in?”  
 “Dunno,” he mumbled. “Hanji stole key.” There was an uncomfortable silence. “So can I bed?”  
 Armin sighed. “Go to sleep Eren, I’ll see if I can help Connie and get your key from Hanji.”  
 “Levi’s dealing,” he muttered. At least he thought he was? There was some memory with Levi saying he was going to skin her, but that could just be a sleep-delusion.  
   
 “Well, I’ll still check… Is that why you called me?” Armin asked. At least it sounded like Armin.  
 Eren blinked. “Called?”  
 Armin sighed. “Go to sleep Eren, I’ll wake you up in an hour. Leave your door alone.”  
 “Kay.” Eren shut the door. Something told him that was a really stupid thing to do, but he wasn’t sure why.  
   
 He didn’t make it back to his bed and blinked at the sudden light.  
 “Eren, why are you on the floor?”  
   
 Eren rolled over and looked up to see Armin standing over him.  
 “Uh, I guess I was really tired?”  
 “You shut the door on Connie,” Armin pointed out. Eren blinked, placing that odd wrongness he had when he had closed the door now.  
 “I’ll apologise later. He’ll get it. Late nights and all.” Eren grimaced. Actually he would have to worry about Connie asking why he didn’t get an invited to the party.  
   
 “I see…” Armin only stared at him. “Is that why I have a missed call from you from three in the morning?”  
 “Was it three?” Eren asked, wide-eyed.  
 “Something like that, I didn’t look at the minutes.”  
   
 Eren scuffed his foot against the floor.  
 “Eren,” Armin warned.  
 “Hanji pickpocketed my card last night,” Eren grumbled. Armin’s eyes went wide and his mouth opened and closed. Eren felt like he had to fill the silence. “Levi was grumbling about it too.”  
 “ _Eren!_ How did you get in?!”  
 “Do you really want to know? I didn’t.”  
   
 Armin shut his mouth and looked thoughtful. “Well it isn’t likely he’ll do it very often is it?”  
 Eren snorted. “He said the room looks better than when Hanji was in this dorm. So I don’t think that he will.”  
 Armin’s eyes went wide. “ _What?_ ”  
 Eren shrugged. “He said he used to sneak in to clean up after her.”  
 Armin seemed to just be on repeat: “ _What?_ ”  
 Eren sighed. “Should I give you a few minutes to process while I check in with Connie?” Armin only continued his question, so Eren took the few seconds to send a brief question to Connie.  
 Armin finally stopped garbling as he realised that dorm security would be as shitty as the dorm.  
 “How are you getting it back?”  
 “Levi told me to stay inside until he got it back for me. Said he’d send her here on her knees.” He frowned. “Or something like that, things got a little hazy after a while. The RA’s phone went unanswered too.”  
   
 Armin let out a heavy sigh. “Well I suppose there wasn’t really an alternative.”  
 Eren wisely kept his mouth shut. He firmly believed that they had jinxed it when Levi had joked about what would happen if he ended up locked out. Levi was probably cursing about voicing that thought as well. He vaguely remembered the older man cursing at ‘whatever goddamned deity up there that had a fucking sense of humour’.  
   
 He bit back a sigh of relief as his phone buzzed, with Connie’s reply. He glanced at a new email notification. He’d have time to look at that later.  
   
  _ **Connie [1:16pm]:** Yeah. Telomeres. Omw._  
   
 Eren sighed slightly. Connie was one of those people that didn’t really like texting in length.  
   
 “What?” Armin stared at Eren expectantly.  
 “Just Connie coming back. Seems that telomeres are still giving him trouble.” He sighed and stood up. Connie would be here soon enough, pounding on the door loud enough to give him a – yes there it was.  
 “Connie, I’m not deaf.” Eren opened the door quickly.  
 “I dunno. You were kinda out of it earlier.” Connie gave him a cursory examination. “You look better now though. There’s a bunch of us doing a study session at the library. Sasha and the others are there already if you want to come.”  
   
 Eren raised an eyebrow.  
 “Okay, yes I’m not the only one that needs bio help. I drew the short straw to get you over there to help out. There’s a few of us that are going to work on that calculus homework too.”  
 Eren grimaced. He hated that calculus course. To think that he used to think that math was _fun_.  
 “Yeah, I know. I hate it too. Come on, get dressed and get going. Actually.” Connie gave him a once over. “Dude, congrats.”  
 “What?” Eren stared at him.  
 “Same clothes? Tired when I came by? You got lucky didn’t you?” Connie grinned. Eren tried to untangle his tongue as Connie continued. “Anyways I’ll see you at the library!”  
 “Which one?!” Eren managed to shout after him.  
 “Ours!”  
   
 Armin was staring at him when he closed the door. “You’re sure you’re okay?”  
 Eren grinned. “I’ll manage. Engineers and that thing about lack of sleep right?”  
 Armin looked rather doubtful. “Well just remember that you’re a freaking baby when you do get sick and I don’t want to have to deal with you _and_ Mikasa whining at me.”  
 “I’ll take care of myself Armin,” Eren promised. “I’ll even make a huge pot of chicken soup for us all.”  
   
 His heart leapt slightly as a shy smile crossed over Armin’s face. It had been so long since he had seen that smile.  
 “I’d like that,” Armin murmured.  
 Eren smiled in return. “Well then, kindly get the fuck out so I can get dressed and try to look like a productive student.”  
 Armin arched an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure you look more like a productive student if you just look like that.”  
 “That’s midterm season, Arm’,” Eren shot back. He looked down at himself and grimaced. “Connie’s right, this does make me look like I got laid. Except that my clothes are on.”  
   
 Armin laughed as he left, closing the door behind him. Eren sighed and paused for a moment before banging his head against the door frame. He couldn’t leave. Or rather, he shouldn’t leave until he got his card back. How could he forget to tell Connie that? He didn’t particularly like using someone else’s card to get in either. He stared at his phone for a few moments, wondering who he should text about his predicament when it buzzed.  
   
  _ **Hanji [1:20pm]:** Here w/ ur card and lunch_  
   
 He let out a deep breath. It seemed that he would survive another day.  
   
 So he thought, until he reached the front door. Mikasa was talking to Hanji. Mikasa was holding a bag, which seemed to have food in it. He stared wide-eyed at the two, he was in trouble now.  
 “Eren, how did you lose your card?” Mikasa asked calmly. He could feel shivers running down his arms, maybe he should have grabbed a sweater after all.  
   
 Hanji gave him an apologetic look as she held out the key card. He quickly shoved it into his back pocket.  
 “I didn’t mean for you to stay up that late,” she smiled sheepishly. “I’ll be careful next time! See you!”  
 “Wait!” Eren took two steps before Mikasa’s glare stopped him. “What do you mean _next time_?!”  
   
 Hanji either didn’t hear him or didn’t care to answer that as she continued to dash off. Which left him with a pissed off sister that he would have to deal with in the next five minutes or Connie’s rumours would perpetuate as fact within their study group.  
 “So, I guess that when she said card and lunch she meant you have lunch?” Eren fidgeted. Mikasa only raised an eyebrow and stared at him expectantly.  
 “Can we talk and walk?” he pleaded.  
 She stared a moment longer before turning. “As long as you actually talk.”  
   
 Eren sighed with relief before he followed her.  
 “She stole it last night, don’t interrupt,” he held up a hand as Mikasa opened her mouth. “I’ve been teaching someone how to cook and it lets me have access to an actual stove and oven and _nice_ kitchen stuff for once. Armin’s met them and I was contacting him regularly the first time I went over.”  
 Mikasa’s mouth shut firmly and he thought that he could hear her grinding her teeth.  
 “Anyways, it feels like she has some plan or other, and she’s a little… strange social-wise. I don’t know _why_ she took my key, but Levi was able to break me in. Don’t look at me like that. Armin wasn’t answering his phone and neither was the RA. He said I take better care of myself than she does, so he won’t do it again.”  
   
 He finally dared to meet Mikasa’s eyes; her lips were pressed firmly together.  
 “Honestly I don’t know what he said to her so that she was so meek giving it back,” Eren admitted. He had expected Hanji to pry about the night and how he got back. He couldn’t stop a small smile as he recalled Levi’s comment earlier that night about breaking in.  
   
 “Can I have the bag of food now?” Eren pleaded. It drew a small smile from Mikasa as she handed it over. “Awesome, what are you up to anyways?”  
 “I figured you would want some food. I have some work at the library too anyways.” She turned to look at him. “When are you going to answer Grisha’s email?”  
   
 Eren stared at her for a few moments. “Dad sent an email?”  
 “I know, startling that he’s finally remembering to use technology, isn’t it?” she teased.  
 “Well I guess he finally got tired of getting emails from us.”  
 “How many were you sending?”  
 “One a week.”  
 “Huh,” Mikasa opened the door to the library. “I was sending two. Telling him he owes us a few phone calls at least for not being able to stay for New Year’s.”  
 “Did he give any dates?” Eren asked while he texted Connie to figure out where they had holed up.  
 “No, just asked for test and assignment dates.”  
   
 Eren hummed acquiescence as his phone buzzed. Second floor study rooms.  
 “Eren?”  
 He turned to look at Mikasa, cringing at her ‘mom’ look.  
 “How are you planning to study when you didn’t bring anything with you?”  
   
 There was silence as the thought slowly worked its way into his head.  
 “I’ll steal paper from Sasha,” he muttered. He was definitely still half asleep.  
 “I’ll remind you to email Grisha later then,” Mikasa informed as she walked away. “Don’t forget to eat!”  
 “Yes mom,” Eren grumbled under his breath as the elevator dinged.  
 “Don’t be an ass.”  
 He had forgotten her supreme power to hear things he didn’t want her to hear..  
   
 “So, what’s the problem?” Eren asked as he closed the study room door behind him.  
 “ _Thank God!_ ” Sasha sobbed, corn nuts scattered all around her.  
 “Did Sasha turn into a bird at some point?” Eren stared at the array of nuts around her. Everyone looked away pointedly, only Thomas who was sitting closest to the door, dared to answer quietly.  
 “Don’t ask.”  
 Eren took the hint and sat in the seat next to Connie.  
   
 “Didn’t you bring anything Eren?” Marco asked timidly.  
 Eren offered a sheepish smile. “I forgot, so I might just steal some paper from someone and jot some notes about how to approach the assignment.”  
 “What, you’re going to write Matlab code on paper?” Hitch asked. “You can’t check the code until you get back then, and Thomas and Marco seem to be having some trouble with it as well.”  
 Eren shrugged.  
 “Dude, are you sure you’re awake?” Connie peered at him. “I mean you look better, but you’re still kinda scattered.”  
 “Did you want help or not?” Eren glared at Connie, waiting for him to back down before he got out his lunch.  
   
 Sasha’s whine reverberated in the room. “Are those Mikasa’s leftovers?”  
 “I don’t know,” Eren replied, startled by her ravenous look. She had enough food around her that he had thought his food would be safe. Some time he would learn that Sasha always wanted more food.  
 “Sasha,” he warned as she began to look even more devilish. “I haven’t eaten all day. Back off.”  
 She gave a pitiful whimper and shuffled around. A bag dropped in front of him, before Connie shoved it back to her.  
 “ _Connie!_ ” she protested.  
 “You wanted me to be your regulator. This is me regulating. We can discuss Eren saving a bit if you finish your assignment. Then you can talk about trading!”  
   
 Eren glanced at Mina on his other side.  
 “What’s going on?” he whispered, sliding a noodle into his mouth.  
 “Sasha asked Connie to keep her on task. You know how she is with good food,” Mina muttered. “Anyways, I’m not sure I can keep all of the enzymes straight.”  
 “At least you remember they’re enzymes,” Eren smiled. He managed to get a few mouthfuls of food in between helping Mina, Connie and Thomas. He caught some of the others listening in from time to time as well.  
 “You should apply to be a TA next year for some of those first year courses,” Marco commented. “They’d probably actually learn from you.”  
   
 Eren gave Marco a half smile. “I’d rather stick to teaching people that give a shit.” The wording made him think of, and almost like a summoning, his phone buzzed.  
   
 He finished explaining the DNA replication cycle, for the fourth time, before he checked it.  
   
  _ **Apprentice Chef [4:28pm]:** Can you save burnt tomato soup?_  
   
 Eren wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know the details. He glanced up at Sasha. She roomed with Mikasa and would probably know the answer. He sent a quick message to Levi so that he knew he was checking.  
   
 “Sasha?” He waited until she finished typing up the paragraph before calling again and getting her attention. “Does the save for tomato sauce also apply to tomato soup?”  
 “Huh?” She stared at him for a moment. “Yeah, why?”  
 He ignored the question to send a reply to Levi.  
 “Errrreeeen,” Sasha drawled out. “Why do you need to know?”  
 Eren decided to give her a half answer. “Because I hate reading small text on my phone.”  
 “Apprentice Chef, huh?” Connie peered over.  
 Eren blackened the screen and scowled.  
   
 Connie looked at him critically. “… Eren, do you have your contacts on?”  
 Eren blinked.  
 “Yeah, maybe you should go back and turn in early tonight. Your head’s starting to hurt isn’t it?”  
 “What?” It was, but how Connie would know was beyond him.  
 “You forgot your glasses and I don’t see contacts in your eyes.”  
 Eren’s hand flew to the side of his face. He forgot. No wonder that he was getting a headache. He probably would have noticed right away if he had brought his computer, but most of his work had been on paper so far or just tutoring.  
 “Go rest,” Mina urged.  
 Eren glanced around at everyone else, and even Sasha was nodding frantically.  
   
 “We’ll book the study room tomorrow too! So be raring to go then okay?” Sasha called.  
 Eren felt the smile tugging at his lips. “Sure, I’ll see you then.”  
 He felt his phone buzz again and read the message on the way down.  
   
  _ **Apprentice Chef [4:55pm]:** It worked. Thanks._  
   
 A smile crossed his face. Maybe the loss of sleep was worth it after all.  
   
 

**Author's Note:**

> Levi's POV is the other part of this series. tbiris on tumblr and tracking fic: acar. I may be updating this one next and alternating which one gets written first each time.


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